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Colorado Craft Breweries - How well do they do in promoting their community efforts and why does promoting them matter?

10/29/2014

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The number of Colorado craft breweries continues to climb and expected to go over 300 in the next 12 months. Customers purchase cause-related products and will go out of their way to do so. Craft breweries are a source of community connection as they support numerous events and socialization hubs led by very passionate people. 

So, how well do craft breweries promote their CSR activities? Why should the craft breweries care if they promote their CSR activities or not? Why should you as a stakeholder care?

Well, we are VERY excited to share with you our tools that examine the Colorado craft brewing industry in a very interactive and visual way!!!!!!!

Below are different links to explore the Colorado craft brewing industry, which ones report CSR (with an analysis by county), and why analyzing the promoting of CSR is so important. We suggest starting with the Home Page to get an overview of the research. Then check out Methodology/Conclusions to see how we defined those breweries that promote their CSR and followup with the Why Reporting CSR is Important before jumping into the maps.

The most fun part will be the Interactive Map where you can explore the state of Colorado craft brewing from a CSR perspective!

Click any of the images below to start exploring!

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How strategic is your corporate social responsibility? - Part 2 of 5

10/22/2014

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In part one of our series, we learned the importance of either doing different activities from competitors - or - doing the same activities but in a different way. You may have seen some activities your business does better or more efficiently than competitors. In the article by Porter, he uses examples of how Southwest and Ikea operate differently from their competitors in their respective industries which gives them a unique and difficult-to-replicate position. 

To use an example of a company using CSR in a strategic manner, lets look at Swedish global hygiene and forest products company SCA (Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget).  SCA owns Europe's largest private forest which has become one of their main resources and they have been recognized for their highly responsible forestry practices. Due to this, SCA has more effective operations in comparison to their competitors in this capacity. Although it may be difficult for SCA competitors to replicate and purchase 2.6 million hectares of forest near their production facilities, owning the forest is not a strategy it only moves SCA closer to the productivity frontier. What makes it a sustainable competitive advantage is incorporating it into several other tactics within the company to create a strategic position.

Porter claims that strategic positioning uses three tactics: variety-based positioning, needs-based positioning, and access-based positioning. Lets see what these tactics are and how you can use it when for your CSR program.
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How strategic is your corporate social responsibility? - Part 1 of 5

10/15/2014

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If you own a small or mid-size business, you are probably focused on the important factors that make your business run: cash, materials, people, cash, equipment, cash! Your strategy may be lengthy or broad. Your giving and sustainability practices may be at a "what-we-are-able-to-do" phase. It takes a lot to manage a business. 

One of the things that we try to continually prove is how important corporate social responsibility (CSR) is in business and how it NEEDS to be incorporated into your strategy. We have ways that we can help you with this, but we also need to show you why this is vital.

In approaching your business's strategy from an academic angle, we are going to take one of the most referenced articles on business strategy and apply it to CSR. "What is Strategy?" is written by Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter. The article is organized into five different parts to define what is and is not strategy, citing several different examples of each. 
In this five-part series, we will apply corporate social responsibility (CSR) to one of the top modern business strategy articles, "What is Strategy?" by Michael E. Porter, to determine CSR's role and what needs to be done to make CSR an effective component of your strategy.


An Overview: Where are you at?


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Corporate giving programs across the US - How is each state doing?

10/8/2014

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So, where's corporate giving at today? It's rather complicated. The definition of corporate giving and corporate social responsibility (CSR) varies and reporting processes are still in the process of standardization.

When we started Confluence, we really needed to put into perspective what our community, Colorado, is doing compared to other states. How much community support from corporations does Colorado have in comparison?

Using data from The Grantsmanship Center, we were able to see the total number and the names of  businesses that have corporate giving programs in each state. The Grantsmanship Center defines corporate giving programs as having "either direct giving programs, foundations, sponsorship programs, in-kind donations, product donations, volunteer programs, or matching gift programs." The Grantsmanship Center pulls this information from 990s, Guidestar, or each company's website.

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Corporate social responsibility is necessary for all businesses, big and small

10/1/2014

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The definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the activities it encompasses varies from company to company. For some companies, is the "do good" activities with the belief that the costs associated with these activities are too great and that resources would be better utilized on core operations.

In reality, these activities are more than "doing good." They are unique ways to market your brand and improve operations. CSR can help a business succeed. These activities influence all business interactions with the environment and its stakeholders -> its community. 

From this, let's define CSR as the impacts a business has on its community. Thus, every business performs CSR functions in some capacity. The overall goal is to have the business succeed and use CSR to minimize negative impacts on the community and increase the positive.

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Confluence Ltd. 
Est. 2014