Over the last four years, the amount of nonprofits, donors, and donations have increased (see charts to right) including a new high of $20.4 million raised. It would be expected that these overall numbers increase for 2014.

Listed below are several steps that your business should follow on this day to show your care for your community (which will give your business returns as well).

For our final chapter in this series, we will focus on the necessity of proper leadership when building corporate social responsibility (CSR) into your business. In his final section of "What is Strategy?," Porter emphasizes that executing a strategy relies on differentiating activities, choosing the right trade-offs, and communicating clearly. No matter your role, you can be a leader in implementing CSR at your business.

For Those Directing The Vision
(High-Level Management)
One of the best lessons learned in the article is, "General management is more than the stewardship of individual functions. Its core is strategy: defining and communicating the company's unique position, making trade-offs, and forging fit among activities" (18). As an executive or high-level manager, you can use CSR to assert, support, and reinforce your values and mission, no matter the size business you are running. 

Good leaders at high-level management can use CSR to:

• Be creative with new ideas to support their vision and competitive advantage.
  
• Contribute to the guidelines for better decision-making.
• Reinforce values & culture throughout the company.
• Support professional development for all employees.
• Hedge against future risks.

For this portion in our series, everything is about to come together because we focus on having a solid fit between all business activities, including corporate social responsibility (CSR). The more your business's activities fit together, the stronger your business's advantage will be against competitors.

We have alluded to fit in previous portions of this series in some of our CSR examples.  

• Vail Resorts uses its Epic Promise program to focus on the environment and youth.
• SCA uses its private, sustainable forest in its sustainable packaging.
• New Belgium Brewery uses its energy-saving tactics when producing its beer. 

When looking at these CSR activities, they all fit to their other business activities and their corporate strategies.

Porter claims, "While operational effectiveness is about achieving excellence in individual activities, or functions, strategy is about combining activities" (10). By combining activities together, you create a strong "link" that makes both replication by competitors very difficult and numerous trade-offs. According to Porter, there are three orders of fit.