What is corporate social responsibility and what is it’s purpose?

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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a broad term used to describe a company’s efforts to improve society in some way. These efforts can range from donating money to charities to implementing environmentally-friendly policies in the workplace.

The definition above is often associated with CSR. What’s often forgotten, however, is the importance of saying thank you and for charities to demonstrate that there is a return on investment from this sort of activity.

Over the last two years the Community Transport Association (CTA) has been working in collaboration with KPMG UK. They have supported our charity, enabling us to host our members across England within their conference facilities.

As a FTSE 100 multinational organisation you might think they wouldn’t necessarily be interested in supporting an umbrella charity whose role is to support 1,600 communities groups across the UK. I’m pleased to tell you, however, that they are and that they care passionately about us and our members. They see the impact our sector has on the wider economy and are interested in the stories and case studies which come from our work.

My proudest moment was last October when we held an event in association with KPMG where we discussed the importance of ‘Pro-Social Innovation’. Our expert panel discussed the future of transport innovation, putting community transport at the heart of the discussion.

Connecting people and ideas, spotting the patterns in the chaos and bringing about opportunities for collaboration is something we want to do more of at CTA, but we know that without the support of organisations like KPMG this would not be possible.

After five events across England, this year’s CTA Roadshow came to a close last week. I want to say, from all of us here at CTA, a  massive thank you to all the staff at KPMG -you have all made our members feel so welcomed and given us amazing hospitality!

Most of all you have enabled us to give charities, who rarely get the time to spend with other organisations in their sector, the space and opportunity to look to the future, be inspired by the amazing work they do on a daily basis – keeping people in their local communities connected, reducing isolation and keeping Britain moving!