CSR-Related Nonprofits and NGOs

Abstract

During the first years after corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) began to emerge as an issue for businesses in the 1980s, it was largely a self-regulated activity, with companies making their own decisions about how to manage and report on their environmental and social performance. While the achievements of some firms were impressive, overall there was skepticism about the honesty of corporate communications on their non-economic performance and many argued that corporate self-regulation was inadequate and that it made it too easy for firms to simply engage in public relations activities to improve their reputations as opposed to making a meaningful contribution to sustainable development and achieving social responsibility. One of the responses to these concerns was the ascendance of a new model of co-regulation which now includes partnerships of various types between companies and nonprofit organizations. In addition, nonprofit organizations have become important direct actors with respect to organizing and undertaking CSR-related initiatives.