As Poslovni writes, in recent years, the topic of corporate social responsibility has become one of the most important topics for the image of an individual company. One of the constituent elements of social responsibility is corporate philanthropy.
Through the practical application of corporate philanthropy, companies can demonstrate their values and beliefs to employees, partners, clients, and the public. Through financial support or support through products and services, companies show that they understand the needs of the wider community. Philanthropy in the corporate sense has taken different forms throughout history, and now we can say that we live in the age of strategic philanthropy.
This phase refers to the entire business process and all ways in which a company is an active part of society. It is about an open and transparent business policy, keeping in mind the interests of shareholders, employees, the local community and the environment.
Giving in the sense of corporate philanthropy finds satisfaction in positive social change or support of a social value.
Gone are the days when a company’s CSR needs could be met by diverting a certain amount of money to a certain humanitarian or social action. Even in Croatia, companies recognize that their CSR performance includes all their activities that affect society.
The impact on the community in which the company operates has become one of the central values for business entities. This also means that it must be aligned with other company values.
The social impact of business has become one of the key tools for retaining employees and attracting new candidates for open positions. This is particularly important for companies that need a large number of specialists with specific and deficit profiles or an extremely large workforce, especially in labor markets like the Croatian one, where almost all employable people are already employed.
Ways paved
Like entrepreneurship in a broader sense, corporate philanthropy in Croatia is still far from the desired level, but there are many bright examples.
One of the companies that certainly sets new standards in philanthropy on the Croatian market is the Adris Group. This group launched a unique program for the employment of young and educated people, Future in Adris, and since 2007 it has also been running the Adris Foundation, which has so far allocated almost HRK 60 million to diverse and valuable projects, as well as almost 400 scholarships.
The Adris Foundation supports projects and individuals that encourage innovation and knowledge development, creativity, preservation of Croatian natural and cultural heritage, and kindness and solidarity in Croatian society.
The example of the Adris Foundation is followed by other key players in the region, creating their own programs through which they integrate company values with social values.
In Croatia, INA stands out as a giant of corporate philanthropy, which has established a donation policy aimed at particularly sensitive parts of society, and as a company invests particularly in two key categories of social responsibility: the improvement of the health system in Croatia and the welfare of children.
At INA, they think about how the various negative challenges of today and global changes affect children, and they consider it their task to make efforts to reduce these negative influences to the minimum and ensure the well-being of children.
Last year alone, INA donated HRK 900,000 for the needs of children’s departments at the “Sveti Duh” Clinical Hospital in Zagreb, “Dr. Ivo Pedišić” in Sisak, KBC Zagreb, KBC Split, KBC Osijek, KBC Rijeka, Clinic for Children’s Diseases Zagreb and Special Hospital for Chronic Childhood Diseases in Gornja Bistra.
Guided by the principle that it is necessary to incorporate a part of itself into CSR activities, INA has developed a long-term cooperation program with the SOS Children’s Village, thanks to which not only the children from the village received the funds necessary for their growth and development, but aINA employees also built friendships with employees and children from the village. This is precisely an example of greater social value resulting from CSR activities than the amount of the donation itself.
Half a million kuna
These days, news about the new main sponsor of the Croatian National Theatre (HNK) in Zagreb resonated strongly in the media. The National Theatre concluded a contract with M+ Group, a global player in the market of business process outsourcing services (Business Process Outsourcing) based in Zagreb.
The half a million kuna sponsorship for the leading Croatian drama, opera and ballet will be partly realized in the services that the M+ Group normally provides to the world’s leading banks, telecommunications, technology, energy, logistics and other global companies. The current and future audience of the Croatian National Theatre will receive a user experience similar to that of the users of some of the world’s strongest companies.
In this way, the company will help to seat some new generations of visitors in the seats of the HNK, as well as provide timely information about everything that is happening in the theatre to the current audience. It is an ideal example of incorporating the company’s values into a socially responsible activity that included a form of CSR suitable for the 21st century.
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