Making a CSR policy

Corporate Social Responsibility. Now you may wonder what this has to do with our blog or our NGO. After all, isn't Corporate Social Responsibility -- or CSR -- something that blood-sucking corporations use as a safeguard in their evil ways to protect themselves from a guilty conscience??? Before you strap on your activist boots and go marching off, calm your agitating hearts and read on :)

As many of us know by now, CSR is a set of regulations and policies put in place by an organisation to ensure that it functions according to a code of ethics, laws and standards. Rather than just complete a checklist of dos and dont's, CSR aims to influence a company's behaviour to take steps to improve the quality of life for employees, their families, the local community and society at large.

NGOs, by the very nature of the work they do, have a significant social impact in society, and so, often don't think it necessary to have a CSR policy. But this is where we at Mumbai Smiles feel differently. We believe that NGOs, more than any organisation, need to be the first to worry about ethics, social responsibility, environmental care, law, finance and their management.

And this why Mumbai Smiles is in the process of developing its very own CSR policy, using an evaluation and implementation system created by Cristiane Tolotti, our Executive Director in Mexico, who also has a master's degree in CSR. By studying global public sector and private sector documents, we are developing a policy that is adapted to the Mumbai Smiles reality.

The public sector documents and sources are:
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Global Compact
• ILO
• Tripartite Declaration
• Guidelines for Multinationals
• International Organization of Employers 
• Consumers International
• Green Book of the European Union

While the private sector documents include:
• AA1000 Series of Standards
• Global Reporting Initiative
• ISO14000

Our CSR policy will be in place by the end of this year, and it's another meaningful step in making an impact in lives around us.