Why Firms Need to Practice Corporate Social Responsibility

Introduction

The word company comes from two Latin words, the first being ‘com’, which means ‘together’, and ‘panis’ meaning ‘bread’ (Company | Etymology of Company by Etymonline, n.d.). The formation of a company involves people coming together with a focus on earning a profit. For companies to be productive, they require resources. These resources come from the environment, community, and the economy in which they operate. Companies have a moral obligation to give back to the communities in which they operate. For instance, without a customer base, which comes from the community, to sell their products to, they would have no way of generating revenue. Furthermore, the labor that corporations use to produce also comes from the community.

Organizations can give back to their communities through corporate social responsibility. This just means that the firms take into consideration social and environmental factors as they go about their operations.

Corporate social responsibility can take many forms. The firm can take into account the impact of their business activities on the environment and hence put-up measures that encourage the conservation of natural resources and the reduction of carbon emissions and other waste generation. They can make sure to provide fair pay to their workers and ensure that they have safe working conditions. Firms can engage in philanthropic work like donating funds to charity or participating in community development projects.

The idea of corporate social responsibility has been around for a while now, going as far as the early 20th century. For instance, Henry Ford and Edsel Ford set up the Ford Foundation in 1936 which supported various causes like social justice, and education (Our Origins – Ford Foundation, 2023). Another example is the Rockefellers, who were involved in numerous philanthropic works that focused on areas like higher education and scientific research (John Rockefeller Sr. – Philanthropy Roundtable, 2023). However, this phenomenon of philanthropy by firms was first studied in the field of economics by Howard Bowen in 1953, and from there, discussions on the topic have grown over the decades.

In this blog post article, we discuss the advantages of corporate social responsibility to an organization and society as a whole. We also talk about the criticisms that have been raised against corporate social responsibility. The article also dedicates a section that highlights the challenges faced by non-profit organizations like orphanages and why for-profit firms need to help such organizations in the form of corporate social responsibility. This article is based on primary information from an interview conducted with an emergency placement facility that helps rehabilitate children as well as secondary information from books, articles, and reports.

Advantages of Corporate Social Responsibility for Firms

Corporate social responsibility does not only benefit the cause the firm supports but benefits the firm itself as well. There are several ways in which an organization can benefit by undertaking corporate social responsibility, for instance:

  • A firm that gives back to its community can improve its brand perception. Consumers and stakeholders are more likely to be loyal and have trust in such an organization
  • Piggybacking on the first example, a firm is also likely to have a better competitive advantage when it engages in corporate social responsibility as it is likely to attract more investors and consumers.
  • Practicing Corporate Social Responsibility can help a firm better mitigate risks like lawsuits, fines, and reputational damage that may result from social issues, environmental concerns, or unethical behavior associated with the company’s practices.
  • A firm that plays an active role in Corporate Social Responsibility is better able to retain its employees. Workers are more likely to stay with a company that they are proud of, one that has a positive image in society. They are better motivated, engaged, and satisfied with their jobs.
  • A company is likely to see more investment opportunities when it has a good Corporate Social Responsibility track record. As more and more people see the benefit of Corporate Social Responsibility, investors too are more likely to commit their funds to companies that are engaged in contributing to society and paying attention to their impact on the environment.
  • A company can strengthen its relationships with its stakeholders like the government of the country in which it operates, its suppliers, the customers, and the community when it engages with them and helps to address the concerns they may have.

Advantages of Corporate Social Responsibility for Society

Corporate social responsibility has many benefits for society. For example:

  • Corporate social responsibility can improve the quality of life for the members of the community through projects that aim at improving healthcare, promoting education, poverty alleviation, and infrastructure development.
  • Corporate Social Responsibility can provide better environmental protection and conservation since firms engage in more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. Communities do not have to worry about polluted water or air, or issues like deforestation when the firms that operate in their areas are socially responsible.
  • Workers in society receive fair wages, have safer working environments, and labor rights respected when firms practice corporate social responsibility.
  • Corporate social responsibility can also be a way of empowering people with the education and skills needed for jobs through projects and initiatives like scholarships and vocational training programs. These types of initiatives have a ripple effect which can be felt throughout the economy as there will be an increase in the skilled labor available, leading to an increase in the quantity and quality of production.
  • Companies that practice corporate social responsibility may also play a part in preserving and promoting cultural diversity by celebrating and respecting the cultures of their community.
  • Corporate social responsibility encourages firms to engage and work together with various stakeholders in its community to come up with new and innovative solutions to various complex social challenges, hence promoting new ways of problem-solving.

 

Criticisms against Corporate Social Responsibility

Although there are many advantages of corporate social responsibility for both firms practicing it and the community, there are some criticisms that follow it. Some examples of these are as follows:

  • There are instances where companies use corporate social responsibility to mask their negative environmental and social practices. This act is to called social washing, where a firm engages in insincere efforts to improve its reputation while still maintaining its harmful business practices in the background (The Perils of ‘Social Washing’: 4 Practical Tips to Avoid It | B4SI, 2024).
  • Another issue is resource diversion, a situation where companies channel resources towards corporate social responsibility initiatives rather than addressing the root causes of problems.
  • Sometimes, there is a lack of accountability and transparency on how resources are handled and how a firms business practices affects the environment. Without proper structures in place to hold firms accountable, corporate social responsibility efforts might yield little or no results.
  • Another criticism of corporate social responsibility is that firms are primarily motivated to engage in it for profit and not out of genuine concern for society or the environment. Some firms may simply want to improve their public image.
  • Some critics argue that most corporate social responsibility efforts cannot achieve long-term changes in society because most initiatives try to address the symptoms of social and environmental issues rather than focusing on their root causes like regulatory failures, economic inequality, or corporate accountability.
  • In some cases, some firms may use corporate social responsibility initiatives to influence the government in order to avoid regulatory restrictions. As a result, instead of helping society, the initiatives end up doing more harm than good.

 

Home of Hope

 

In this section, a real-life case of a foundation that acts as an emergency placement facility for boys is presented. The information is based on an interview with Br. Jacek Rakowski, director of St. Lawrence Home of Hope Foundation.

 

  1. What does Home of Hope do and what is its vision and mission?

According to Br. Jacek Rakowski, the full name of the foundation is St. Lawrence Home of Hope Foundation. It has existed for more than 20 years now, this year (2024) was 26 years because it was founded in 1998. It was founded by the initiative of the late Cardinal Medardo Mazombwe and he engaged the Catholic Women’s League, which is the lay group in the Catholic Church.

 

“Around the late 90s, the phenomenon of children and young people living on the street started. Before it was not a concern but there was a boom and there were large numbers of kids living on the street so it became a concern to people and they thought maybe there is something we can do, we can help the kids because it’s not normal for kids and young people to be living on the pavement, getting high and dying eventually. So that was the motivation, they noticed the need and then embarked on trying to address the need.”

 

“Of course, in the beginning, it was very small, but thanks to now late President Michael Sata who was at that time the Minister of Local Government, they procured a land about 25 years ago. At least he made it possible to obtain land in an area that was close to where the target group of kids and young people were found, which is the city center. It was a walkable distance for kids and also for people who were working to reach out to kids. They started out with almost no funding, but slowly some people donated cargo containers, three of them, which were converted into living quarters. Those three cargo containers were the beginning of Home of Hope, and from there the work began.”

 

As mentioned earlier by Br. Jacek, people noticed that there was an abnormal situation and they had a lot a zeal to address it. However, they didn’t have much expertise about the causes and because of that it was difficult to carry out a diagnosis. If you don’t have a diagnosis, you will not find the cure. So, the first group of young people who were brought in from town all ran away after two days, taking the blankets and clothes they were given with them. The people working to help the children learned very fast that just because someone looks miserable it doesn’t mean that the person recognizes his or her situation and if they don’t recognize their situation as miserable, then they are not ready to receive any help. This is where the struggle started and the development of the foundation’s plans, philosophy, spirit and goals.

 

“The learning process did not happen overnight, it was trial and error for a few years and slowly because people noticed this group of women was trying to do something good, people started coming on board to help. For starters, brick rooms were constructed, a wall fence which made the place more secure, it was easier to control kids, and it started giving the place the appearance of a home unlike the cargo containers 25 years ago. Later a police post was also brought next to the place, in order to help with controlling the young people.”

 

“That was the idea, but it didn’t really work like that at first because they didn’t really understand the work initially. In social work, when you work with human beings your good will is not enough because you really have to know your clients you have to know the problem and you have to study quite a lot to be able to understand and then to help effectively. You should not allow your target to abuse the institution because that can also happen.”

 

  1. Background of Home of Hope director

“Br. Jacek Rakowski started working with Home of Hope since 2006. Before that, he had been working on the streets of Kitwe for two years. By then, he didn’t run an organization, he had been freelancing on the street getting myself inserted at Chisokone market area of the post office where a lot of kids were found. As a result of that experience, he got in contact with organizations who care for children living on the streets, who then sent me to Nairobi for one year where he was also working on the street in Nairobi with the homeless kids.”

 

“When he was asked to come back to Zambia, he already had a lot of experience with insertion, but what he didn’t have was insertion in Lusaka. Groups of young people living on the street, can be quite hermetic, they stick to each other and do not easily accept outsiders. So, he spent the first five years being on the street every day until he eventually got accepted and perceived as part of the group, which was quite difficult considering that he was not a native.”

 

“After he started working at the foundation, they started deepening their understanding, evaluating their approach, looking at the results, and asking if they had achieved what they wanted, what was missing, what did they still not understand, what had to be adjusted. They have continued doing such evaluations up till now in their work process. After 18 years of him being there, this evaluation is still ongoing. He says he does believe that self-evaluation is important when you are running a business, otherwise, you will just go bankrupt. He also says that it is import to recognize market and whatever they are doing now, it doesn’t mean that they will be doing it in the same way five years from now, because there’s a lot of things that they used to do that they don’t do now.”

 

  1. Which kids does the foundation focus on helping?

Br. Jacek says, “We also see ourselves differently. In the beginning, the idea was that it was a center for street children and that’s how it was called. Some people still perceive it like that. However, we see ourselves differently. We are officially now an emergency placement facility for boys. We do not only receive children who have experience or an episode of life on the street, but also children who for different reasons either run away from home or had to be removed from their families by the court, the police or social welfare. Hence, we have kids from diverse backgrounds. We still go to the street at least once a week, and let’s say 40% of kids here have experience or had an episode of life on the street, but the majority never had that experience, they’ve never been on the street. They are here for different reasons, either due to severe neglect or due to active intentional abuse, or children who committed crimes themselves and have been through court, and are sentenced by court for rehabilitation here. Others are kids who get lost, for example, especially kids with mental disabilities or with some conditions, like autistic children, for whom it’s very easy to get lost because they may wander off and may be unable to communicate effectively with people who want to help. Eventually they are taken in by the police or social welfare, and then ends up with us.”

 

“We have an average of 10 new children every month, which adds up to more than 100

new children every year. And of course, this is not an end station, it is not an orphanage, but an emergency placement facility. A child comes here because something negative was happening in his life for a long time, or one negative event happened that led to separation from their family, either initiated by the child or imposed by authorities, charged with the protection of children in Zambia. They are then placed here. We also receive foreign children who are victims of human trafficking rescued from traffickers.”

 

“We do not call ourselves a center for street children, because it’s not fair to children. Even if children had been living on the street, it was not really by informed choice, it’s just circumstances they were in and they ended up on the street. They should not be labeled for the rest of their life as a street kid just because they were living in our facility. I do my best not to use the term, but if I have to use it, I always state why I don’t like it.”

 

“Our job is to, after the crisis, get to know the child, their family, be deeply familiar with the history of that child within that family, then assess how we can help. We try to determine what the deficiencies with the child are, what deficiencies are on the side of the family, guardians, biological parents or extended family, and then work together to reintegrate the child with the family. Hence, from the first moment we meet with the child, we will be focusing on their family, and we will do whatever humanly possible to engage the family in the work that we do here with the child. Our overall goal is reintegration of the child with their family, and not to take over from the family.”

 

  1. What are some of the Success stories?

Br. Jacek goes on to say, “It is important to us to see success stories, to experience them, because that gives us positive feedback that we are on the right track. Of course, we don’t achieve success with every child, but before that, we would have to define success. For us when a child can go back to the family and live in that family without being abused, neglected or taken advantage of, and the child feels comfortable and accepted in that family, that’s a success. For example, we received 104 new children, reintegrated 100 children, and so far, no one relapsed, no one came back or was brought back by police. So that’s already 100 successes so far.”

 

“Over the last 25 years we have had plenty of people. Another example is of two of the boys who recently went for good. They had been with us for five years, and we saw the tremendous transformation in them and their families. Five years ago, they were completely blamed for everything, they really behaved badly, and they were rejected by the family. After five years, they went happily, their families were happy that they were coming back home and we were also happy. We will continue helping with some educational expenses for that too.”

 

“We have also had some people from here who went on to study abroad in countries like China and Israel. One of them is doing his masters in bioengineering in Tel Aviv in Israel. Another is a happily married teacher in Israel. There are many more other examples like some who are good plumbers, bricklayers, drivers or crane operators, etc. all of which not remained abusive, are married, they love their wives and do their best to take care of their own children. That’s the success to us.”

 

“It’s not about how many of our former boys have master’s degree that’s the measure of success, not everyone is inclined academically, and by definition, kids who were living here went through a lot in their early childhood. They didn’t have the right environment to discover and nurture their potential, the important thing is they are doing their best to take care of their family. Every child we have reintegrated is a success, and we’ve reintegrated over a thousand kids over the past 25 years. Sometimes if the situation with their families is really bad such that they cannot go back, we will not reintegrate them with their families, and they will mature here, they will continue their education, and then we will help them with transitioning to independent living when they reach maturity. We have a system where they eventually move and start living on their own, but for the first few months we will be monitoring them, helping them with small payments and slowly they take over everything after a few months. After that they move on, we meet maybe once every few years if they choose to come and visit. We don’t want to be imposing and we don’t want to create a dependency syndrome.”

 

  1. What are some of the organizational capacity difficulties and challenges?

When asked about the main challenges faced when running an organization, Br. Jacek describes the following:

  • Infrastructure

“We are good at what we do and I say it proudly, and our work is recognized by police, ministry and courts. So, we are always receiving kids. We are the only non-governmental that will receive juvenile offenders. Children who may have committed a crime will also be sent here, and we have had a number. Infrastructure is still problematic, we are limited by the space, it’s very cramped. We long to obtain a bigger land and build afresh, but it costs a lot of money to do that. Our job is conditioned on being in Lusaka, because our clients come from Lusaka, and the ministries and authorities we work with are in Lusaka, so we cannot move outside the city where the land is cheaper, and funding is always a problem. Officially, our capacity is 55, we have 55 beds, and today we have 78 boys in the facility. We always receive more kids than our capacity, because that’s what emergency is called for, it’s not like we choose kids when we have space, it doesn’t work like that.”

 

  • Basic needs and transportation

“If a child is brought in, we have to take care of every aspect of their life, starting from sleeping space, bedding, clothing, food, hygiene, education, even parties, going to the hospital, and providing medication. We work like a huge family, where parents have to take care of everything, we don’t charge parents anything. The ministry as much as we closely work with them, we have learned not to expect any financial support. For instance, last year we only received a donation of k4,000 from the ministry, which is not much. A full fuel tank for a Hilux would costs almost k2000 which is enough for one or two round trips and we travel a lot to do our work. Because one of the first things we do is to first know the child for us to be able to help them. We have to know the person, we have to know their history, which in most cases children themselves don’t know or remember, and this for us is important. Therefore, we physically have to go and trace the family and engage with the them, without which we cannot understand the child’s background. We have 104 new children, which means a separate trip for each child and some come from places that are far from Lusaka, like other provinces. This only accounts for the initial contact with the family, we also have programs of home visits. There are cases where we pay the transportation for the parents who cannot afford to come, and there are cases where the parents do not want to engage with the child, then we have to go to them. If we want to repair the relationship between the child and their parents and reintegrate them, we can not keep them isolated from their family during the entire time they are with us. That’s why we must meet up with the families.”

  • Salaries

“It is quite challenging to get funding from donors for expense that are not directly visible or tangible like infrastructure. For example, expenses like fuel, which is quite expensive now, as mentioned earlier, can be difficult to get funding for especially with donors who are not very familiar with Zambia.”

“But places like this cannot function if we do not have competent caregivers. Because those people who actualize change in the child are caregivers, and they have to be competent because then they are more effective. If they’re more effective, that is more beneficial to kids. Kids do not have to stay unnecessarily long in the facility, but it’s condition hinges on the competence of the caregiver who has to have certain knowledge, which means they have to be educated. We have to have special courses. They have to understand kids, not only to do the job but also to understand the child, otherwise they might just end up judging the child. And if you start judging the child, you will never help. It will just aggravate the problem that child came with from the start.”

“Because they have to be competent in this sense, we have to find money to ensure that they are well-paid. This job can be very demanding, we cannot afford to have a caregiver with their mind elsewhere while here. That’s why we have to ensure that they are paid well so that they do not have to worry about making extra income to feed their families.”

“However, it’s very difficult to get money for salaries. It’s like most overseas donors have the attitude that somehow it makes sense for people in Africa to work for free. Some indirectly imply that it is justifiable for Zambians to be paid less. I believe people have to be renumerated because then they are more effective and more competent, which benefits our clients. We are law obliged to pay three months of gratuities which is a 25% of total basic salary accumulated during the contract period, coming to three extra salaries. People here don’t go for paid leave because if a caregiver goes for paid leave, we still have to fill the vacancy. For that one month when they go, the substitute will be a stranger, someone who does not understand the philosophy and the kids. This means the kids are losing at the end. So, we prefer that they do not go on extensive leaves and we pay them for the leave dates and make renumeration for unutilized paid leave. People are happy because they have more money. Because of all these reasons each employ gets 16 salaries in the year. We also have to consider salary increment for every new contract to account for inflation. But it’s difficult to get funding for running costs.”

  • Final remarks on challenges faced. A call to donors

Br. Jacek goes on to say, “It’s very difficult for me personally when in Europe and the States, everyone understands that just by the virtue of being a child, you are a consumer of time attention, and goods. It’s for others to provide that for you. But when we call it an African child, they have to be an orphan, a child victim or a child with AIDS for them to be helped. They cannot be helped simply by being a child.”

“The second thing is that kids here have to earn money. All this income is generated in orphanages, in facilities where we make kids draw pictures or make toys or work on the farm because they have to be self-reliant and that’s how the organization saves money. It’s immoral and abhorrent and I do not understand how it makes sense for people, especially those overseas, to propose such. One time I got the question, ‘Why don’t you have a farm?’. I said, ‘Who will work?’ and they said, ‘The kids will work, but then they will have something to eat.’ I said ‘They’re kids, I’m not going to make them work. Their job is to learn and to play because that’s their nature. That’s how they develop. They will work for the rest of their life and they will work well. And they will contribute to the economy and they will have good families. They will not need the health care so much. They will not be a burden. But only if we allow them to be kids now.’ Working on the farm at home is okay, but not making children do such work in an institution.”

“Finding money for living costs is very difficult. Organizations end up spinning stories in such a way that donors will agree. For instance, in this financial cycle, big international organizations have a specific target funding. For example, this time may be focused on the girl child, next time may be on AIDS victims, another on street children, and so on. You have to use that to get money. It does not feel right for there to be some kind of justification or reason for helping children.”

“The other thing is when the motivation for giving is wrong. Some donors give just to feel satisfied, and in most cases, such turn out quite difficult to work with. Because some of them want things to be run in the way they want when they have no experience with working with kids in such situations. Unfortunately, many small NGOs eventually end up destroyed by that attitude when they follow whims and the lack of information of their donors. But most donors understand when you explain to them and end up even giving more.”

  1. What would you tell donors the importance of donating to orphanages?

When asked why it is important for donors to donate to organizations like this, Br. Jacek states, “Donors good people, willing to give, but they are not naive. You can fool one or two, but that’s very short-sighted. Hence, you have to take that into account and you have to be respectful of people and understand that most of the funding that comes even if it comes as a large sum, comes from small donations of people who know the shortage themselves. Money from very rich people like billionaires, might never come to organizations like us. Our money comes from people who know adversity and they are willing to share whatever little they have. And if we put it together, it is enough to do something to move us forward. You have to understand that the money did not come from rich people who did not know what to do with it.”

“Secondly, you have to deliver on your commitments. I always tell donors not to be naïve and check before giving their money. Many will understand that a manager needs a salary, and caregivers as well, need to sustain themselves and their families. They will not understand if you do not disclose that you are going to use the funds for that. For instance, if you say you want to build a toilet, but then you use that money to pay the salary to your teachers or caregivers, it will come out sooner or later which will eventually lead to losing the donors. This in turn makes it difficult for other organizations to get funding because donors talk to each other and the negative experience will cause them to be far more careful and far less willing to give. Therefore, it is important to do the job in an honest way.”

“It is also important to know yourself. Where many small NGOs go wrong is that they want to do everything themselves. For instance, we are an emergency placement facility but then because we have kids who need to go to school, we decide to make our own school. We have bigger boys who need skill training then we make our own skill training center. It’s impractical, unsustainable and very expensive. You end up being confused about who you are and what your mission is and eventually you lose your character and the need for your existence. It’s far better to use what is available nearby. Financially speaking, it is far easier to pay fees where kids are in different schools than to start a school. Furthermore, as a manager or a caregiver, you become so scattered because your attention is being diverted from the duties that you were first passionate about. For example, we used to have a chicken run because I gave into the suggestions of some donors. I ended up spending most of my time with the chickens and not with kids, and yet my primary job is to be with the kids. After all that, we did not even have income to sustain the children. The belief is that facilities should have income generating projects because they have to be self-reliant. We are providing care for kids; we can never be self-reliant. Kids are consumers, they cannot be self-reliant, they need people to care for them. But we cannot expect that kids will start running a farm to the point that we don’t need donations. I follow many meetings where directors or managers of small NGOs, child care facilities or orphanages talk about starting new income generating projects. But I have never seen or heard report evaluations of the income generating project after a few years to see how they are doing.”

“I only know one organization in Ndola, Chichetekelo, who are doing very well. They had a good business plan and some donors who understood them. So, they run facilities independent from their organization. They have coffee and ice cream shops which are independent businesses run by different people in several cities. Profits from that feed the Chicheteko facility in Ndola. But you need a lot of money and people for you to achieve that.”

  1. Final remarks

In his final remarks he says, “Donors should check. If I do my job well, results will be seen. I will not even have to tell people. When you come here, you will see a happy colorful place with happy kids. Social welfare and the police can verify that we have a good practice. And when donors see that, they are willing to help. We have the responsibility of making sure that every donation goes where it is meant to go. We cannot betray that. Normally when people come, I allow them to directly talk with the kids about how they feel here, they do not have to take my word for it.”

“My dream is to see the Zambian institutional child care system at a point in time where running of facilities like this will be a matter part of the annual budget by the ministry. I spend most of my time begging, writing proposals, writing reports, and telling people why we need their money. Without the necessary help, the happy kids that we have here might have ended up doing drugs on the street or in other worse situations and they would have got blamed for it.”

“All children are born with the same potential; the difference is that some parents and children do not have the tools necessary to actualize that potential. Therefore, they grow up as less effective, less efficient members of society who become burdens to the economy because they have to rely on hand-outs. The potential they have was not recognized. There were no tools or environment to actualize that potential.”

“From a business point of view or the government’s point of view, in profit-loss terms, it would make perfect sense to invest in institutions like this or in early childhood education. They would spend a lot of money, but within two generations, the economy would really pick up because the country would have a larger proportion of self-reliant, effective individuals who can contribute to the economy. The book ‘From Neurons to Neighborhoods’ explains well, using peer-reviewed research that has been done on this topic, why it makes economic sense to invest in child care activities.”

Conclusion

This article first introduced the concept of corporate social responsibility, its advantages for firms engaged in it, the benefits to society overall, and the criticisms associated with it. The second part was based on an interview that focused on a real-life case of a foundation that acts as an emergency placement facility for boys. This section talked about the background of the foundation and its director, its philosophies and motivations, success stories, challenges, and why donors need to help foundations like this one.

As mentioned earlier, corporate social responsibility has been around for a while. It can come in many forms, either through philanthropic works, environmental sustainability, ethical labor practices, and many more. It has many advantages to the firm like, improving its brand perception, risk mitigation, employee retention, and more investment opportunities. The society also benefits from it in many ways like, improving the quality of life of members of the community, providing better environmental protection, fair labor practices, and promoting cultural diversity. However, it also has its critics, like those who point out that corporate social responsibility can be used for social washing, or that it cannot achieve long-term changes in society because it does not address the root causes of problems, etc.

In the second section, the background of the foundation, its director’s background, its views and motivations as well as its success stories were the focus. Furthermore, it also looked at some of the challenges the organization has been facing. Some of the challenges include limited accommodation capacity due to high demand; and difficulty associated with receiving donations for running costs like caregiver’s salaries and transportation for work-related trips. The interviewee also emphasizes the need to realize that society does not need to have an excuse or reason to help any child, a child in need should be helped on the sole basis of being a child. Finally, firms, governments, and other stakeholders stand to benefit from donating to such causes as well as participating in corporate social responsibility because society ends up with more productive members who can contribute to the economy.

Written by:

Abishai Chileshe (BSc, MA Economics)

References