Community engagement in the BASK is about ongoing, two-way relationships, not transactions. Three named approaches, and every scenario turns on preferring the relationship to the gesture.
The three approaches
- Representation on community boards
- Joint community projects
- Employee volunteerism
That is the list.
What is not on it
- Corporate matching gifts, endowments and naming rights are philanthropic vehicles the BASK does not name here.
- Lobbying, political action committees and trade association membership are government relations.
- Local hiring quotas, tuition grants and housing subsidies are local investment practices, not the BASK's engagement approaches.
The keyed reasoning
A regional employer is criticized for deciding things that affect a neighborhood without consulting it, and wants a durable improvement rather than a one-time donation. Seek representation on community boards and pursue joint community projects. Those two create the ongoing two-way relationship the situation calls for.
- A larger annual grant repeats the one-time transaction the organization is trying to move beyond.
- Publishing a community impact statement communicates without engaging.
- An annual open house is a single event, not sustained inclusion.
An employee resource group asks HR to sponsor a skills-based volunteering day under an approved, funded CSR strategy. Support it as employee volunteerism within the approved community engagement approach.
- Declining because volunteering is outside HR denies a role the BASK assigns to HR.
- Requiring employees to use paid time off converts a company program into an employee cost.
- Redirecting the group to a cash donation substitutes giving for the engagement approach the BASK actually lists.
Carry this in
When the choice is between giving money and being present, the BASK's community engagement approaches are the presence: boards, joint projects, volunteerism.