Boston College Center member Kohl’s Department Stores has launched a contest to give 20 lucky schools $500,000 each this year in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Kohl’s Cares®, the company’s philanthropic program that advocates children’s health and education. Kohl’s hopes to inspire students and school supporters to dream big about what their favorite school could do with half-a-million dollars – whether it’s starting an art program, creating a new computer lab or saving a music program.

“At Kohl’s we are … giving back to the communities that we serve. As kids and parents think about the new school year, we want everyone to dream big about how half-a-million dollars could impact their favorite school,” said Julie Gardner, Kohl’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer. “We believe that when communities thrive so does business. This program… [is] the cornerstone of the company’s Back-to-School campaign.”

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New Academy combines on-campus instruction with distance learning

The best and the brightest in any field are not accomplished because they’ve learned it all. What makes them stand out as leaders is a desire to keep learning.

In that spirit, the Boston College Center has created the innovative Community Involvement Leadership Academy scheduled to launch this fall. Designed for the most seasoned veterans of corporate community involvement, the Academy combines an intensive on-campus program with a four-month distance learning program. In both the on-campus and off-campus portions, participants will learn through instruction by experienced adjunct faculty and guest speaker practitioners, as well as by sharing experiences with fellow community involvement leaders attending the Academy. Read the rest of this entry »

I often hear comments such as “We’re just putting out fires in our community involvement,” or “Our company is changing and we need to meet many new challenges to continue to contribute,” or “We need to find a way to move our community program to the next level, inject new life.” Such remarks indicate the need for deliberate and proactive changes in community involvement direction, often called strategic planning.

This term often invokes daunting thoughts of a clinical and painful process. I prefer to use a more accurate and descriptive term to address these concerns: “achieving exceptional performance.” Read the rest of this entry »

Our friends to the north, Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, in partnership with Strandberg Consulting, have recently released a very practical set of guidelines for corporate social responsibility governance. Recognizing the important role that boards of directors play in institutionalizing CSR in a company, CBSR worked with local board members to create the CSR Governance Guidelines. It includes a checklist assessment tool based on current best practice in CSR governance. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s always hard to come back to work after a long holiday weekend, especially in the summer. That’s just one of the reasons companies try hard to engage their employees and keep them committed to their work.

We’ve always thought corporate citizenship offers a great way to engage employees, and a new study by the Center for Creative Leadership confirms that corporate social responsibility programs are linked to how committed an employee is to an employer. Read the rest of this entry »