The BCLC’s Business for Good Map
Interested in what The McGraw-Hill Companies are doing around microfinance lending in Southeast Asia? How about Intel is doing around literacy and entrepreneurship in Turkey? Trying to find examples of successful CSR programs implemented by multi-national companies in Africa? How about any other continent around the world? The U.S. Chamber Business Civic Leadership Center, or BCLC, now answers those questions with its new Business for Good Map, an online tool that helps share information on big, important CSR projects (and other major community involvement programs) implemented by major corporations around the world.
The Business for Good Map is designed to visually represent all of the major CSR programs going on around the world. Today, the map highlights programs implemented by companies ranging from FedEx to Kraft Foods to Marriott International, among others, and is continuing to grow both in terms of the number of projects listed but also by the comprehensive level of detail describing each project’s goals and objectives. As the BCLC puts it, the map is designed to identify:
- What causes or issues leading companies care about, and how they’re investing in them;
- Opportunities for business-to-business partnerships;
- Where resources are being invested across the globe and what community needs are already being met; and
- Where needs or gaps in resources exist.
So in other words, rather than just sharing ideas for companies that want to implement similar CSR programs as their peers, the Business for Good Map helps companies ensure that they are not duplicating efforts already in place, or recreating the wheel. Rather, if a company wants to work on a similar program as is already in place, opportunities for partnerships arise. Similarly, the map allows large companies in the process of designing their CSR programs to identify gaps in regions or in services provide in order to most effectively contribute to communities around the world.
The information contained in the map’s database includes information on a wide variety of social responsibility or CSR issues, including disaster relief, diversity & inclusion, philanthropy, job creation, food & nutrition, and many other categories. Each can be quickly found through a search that lets users find projects based on geography, issue or company name.
There are a number of ways that visitors can view the free, publicly-available data stored on the Business for Good Map, and there are a number of ways that companies can share information around the programs they are implementing across the globe, including:
- The Business for Good Map homepage (http://csr.bclcmaps.com);
- Subscriptions to the map’s RSS feed;
- Through a company’s listing on the Business for Good Map website;
- By providing a keyword search on the map’s website;
- Embedding html code to place a customized view of the map on other websites;
- The BCLC homepage – CSR Map section;
- A one-click Twitter or Facebook share button on project pages; and
- Everywhere a company chooses to link to its project(s)
For more on the BCLC’s Business for Good Map, please visit: http://csr.bclcmaps.com.
The BCLC covers the following key CSR-focused issues around the world:
Arts & Culture
Disasters
Diversity & Inclusion
Education
Energy
Environment
Food & Nutrition
Health & Wellness
Housing
Job Creation
Philanthropy
Technology & Telecom
Transportation
Veterans
Voluteerism
Water
Women & Girls
Youth
About/More Info:
Questions? Contact BCLC communications director, Catherine “Kitty” Keller, [email protected] or by calling 202-431-1993.
If you’re representing a business, non-profit, government agency, or community, BCLC can help connect you to the right business or practitioner.
Simply email [email protected], and a member of the BCLC team will get back to you as soon as possible.
Business for Good Map By the Numbers:
200,000 – The number, in thousands of U.S. dollars, that Marriott International helped secure from the U.S. State Department for the Youth Career Initiative (YCI), a program that provides a six-month education program to high school graduates around the world from disadvantaged backgrounds.
80 – The percent of people who live in Huanuco, Peru who live in poverty. Microsoft is teaming up with local NGOs, including Paz y Esperanza (Peace and Hope) to provide new technology and software programs, as well as training, in order to help improve the quality of life of many of the residents in the area.
