Helping deliver multi-stakeholder social value

Whether you are a major financial institution or a well loved family food business, societal issues at a local, national and global level have an impact on your business. Societal, economic and environmental issues present both risks and opportunities that require considered management if you wish to deliver positive impact beyond profit or merely want to maximise shareholder value.

Many organisations are dedicating time and resource to identifying the social issues to which they are inherently linked, and then building solutions that have a tangible, positive effect on the external world, whilst also providing business benefits.

However this new approach often exposes two problems. Firstly, few businesses have the capacity and capability to commit sufficient time and resource to tackle these issues in such a way that they would benefit the bottom line. Secondly, the interconnection of social issues is complex and intertwined. Focusing on a small number of social issues – often in a siloed manner – will not break the back of these problems and will not deliver the desired financial benefits.

Some businesses have recognised these problems and are increasingly making efforts to embed responsible practises across their organisations. Many are realising that they cannot achieve progress operating in isolation. They need to work with multiple stakeholders from across the public, private and social sectors.

Companies who engage successfully with multiple stakeholders have seen greater levels of impact and innovation, development of new intellectual property and opportunities to scrutinise their own business practices.

Supporting social investment
Legal & General recognises the importance of working with the right partners to maximise their impact in key areas. At Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), we have been supporting Legal & General to understand the social investment market and identify the role that they should play in it. We have co-created a multi-partner, community-focused social investment platform, SE-Assist (www.se-assist.co.uk).

SE-Assist is a pioneering new concept that allows companies, Local Enterprise Partnerships, charities and councils to multiply the impact they have on their local community by filling a gap in finance provision and providing wider support for social enterprises. SE-Assist offers a package of support to start-up enterprises wishing to improve regeneration, employment and social issues in their local areas. The package consists of an interest free loan, Legal & General mentor and business expertise.

In addition, we have worked with them to explore the role that social investment should play at a commercial level and they recently sponsored a CAF report called Unlocking the power of creative capitalism through social investment, which explores the corporate relationship with the social investment market.

A sustainable legacy
Fifth generation family bakers, Warburtons, prides itself on baking the highest quality products and its strong values. It believes that as a responsible family business, sustainability must be embedded across everything it does. CAF has supported Warburtons on its sustainability journey; helping to plan, develop and embed its sustainability strategy, identifying and bringing in partner organisations when appropriate.

CAF is committed to working with organisations to help strengthen business practices and deliver social value. Regardless of where your company is on its corporate responsibility journey, we help you to increase long term competitiveness by leveraging greater value from your existing CR investments and activities.

Key to this is developing networks and relationships that create a multiplier effect far stronger than any one organisation can deliver. We offer a range of services from strategy development to partnership building and fund deployment. We are experienced in delivering multi-stakeholder projects with several aims, enabling positive disruption and effective change management processes to provide new forms of social innovation and investment.

CAF’s services are impact-led and we work to identify solutions and build bespoke packages of support. Core to our offering is a range of transactional services that maximise the effectiveness of your corporate responsibility programmes. These include solutions to manage your budgets and increase fundraising, and mechanisms to support employee giving. We have a reputation for helping pioneering initiatives to grow and become self sustaining, while seeking to encourage positive corporate behaviour.