Education Benefits from Corporate Social Responsibility Programs

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been widely covered in the media for the last few years. We've heard a lot about how companies are "going green" by reducing emissions, becoming LEED certified, and using and producing sustainable products. One area of CSR that has remained outside the limelight until recently has been corporate focus on improving education both domestically and internationally.

In the last week, two companies have made headlines (well, in the CSR field at least) by committing to the improvement of education in the United States. Recall Corp., an information management company, announced earlier this week that they would partner with KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program), a national network of free, public charter schools. In this partnership, Recall will donate $200,000 over a three year period as well as participate in mentoring programs in the Metro Atlanta area, where Recall has its headquarters.

The second company to make CSR news this week was Sam's Club, who launched their Giving Made Simple program. This online voting campaign will allow members and employees to participate in the company's contribution to education and entrepreneurship by voting for the charity that will receive the allotted $4 million. All the participating organizations focus on educating and improving the business skills of girls, at-risk, and minority children.

Another company that recently focused their CSR initiatives on education is Dell. Launched in February 2009, YouthConnect supports international education by funding programs that teach children how to effectively use technology. To date, Dell has given $7 million in grants to charitable organizations around the world in both urban and rural areas. Each program Dell invests in has a one-year pilot period which, if successful, leads to multi-year grants to fund the continuation of the program.

It's nice to see that companies are using their CSR resources to give back to the people in their communities as well as the environment. It would also be nice if these contributions were covered better in mainstream media. Perhaps more coverage would encourage more corporate CSR programs to focus on improving education. Look what media coverage did for the green movement.  Can you imagine what it would do for education development?

Photo Credit: Annie Mole