The 2020 International Corporate Citizenship Conference breakout sessions are organized into tracks to help you choose the ones most relevant to your work.

*Each breakout session is also notated with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that align most with each topic. Learn more about the SDGs on the UN website.

2020 Breakout Sessions 

Below are some of the breakout sessions for the 2020 International Corporate Citizenship Conference. Check back for updates!

STRATEGY AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

All aboard: Making the business case for corporate citizenship

Increasingly, executives understand the potential value that corporate citizenship offers back to the business—but do they recognize how YOUR particular programs advance THEIR goals? Not always. The key to building the business case and gaining buy-in lies in ensuring that your efforts support your company’s business strategy by helping functional area leaders and brands to achieve their business goals. This session will help you hone your message and give you the tools and tactics to build a network of influence.

You’ll walk away with a roadmap to help you clearly articulate how your efforts benefit the bottom line.

Center research deep dive: How do your executives view corporate citizenship?

The Center’s recently published State of Corporate Citizenship 2020 examines the perspectives of executives on the value of corporate citizenship—and finds that your leaders overwhelming recognize the importance of CSR in achieving business goals. Join this session to get up to speed on key trends in how executives are thinking about corporate citizenship and how priorities may be expected to shift in the next couple of years.  In this session, leaders from UPS—the study’s sponsor—will join Center Executive Director Katherine Smith for an illuminating discussion of where CSR practitioners are meeting their leaders’ expectations, and where there’s room for further alignment. You’ll learn how to maximize the business value of your efforts through selection, integration, and duration, and how to best communicate your efforts for maximum success. 

Inclusion and Diversity for the 21st Century

As the demographics of our customers and employees becomes more varied, inclusion and diversity programs become more important in the modern workplace. Rather than merely tracking numbers of diverse employees, firms today work also to foster cultures that encourage all employees to bring their full selves to work. In this session, you’ll hear from experts who work creatively to ensure that all employees feel valued, supported, and prepared to bring their best ideas to their work.

You’ll walk away inspired to notice, challenge, and advance your own inclusion programs. 

Seeing around corners: Getting ahead of ESG risks

Climate change, environmental regulation, employee activism: These emerging issues were not high-priority for the business community just a few decades ago, but are now top of mind among executives. While evolving environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks can threaten normal business operations, corporate citizenship professionals are well suited as subject matter experts—who can position their leaders to prepare for and maneuver disruptions successfully. Join this session to learn about how corporate citizenship professionals have set up teams and processes to manage the real business risk of ESG issues.

You'll walk away with tools and tactics so you can head off challenges before they happen and take advantage of any associated opportunites. 

Better together: Profound partnerships to achieve the global goals

No one organization can meet the ambitious targets set by the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To address complex global challenges such as poverty, inequality, and climate change, companies must work with governments, nonprofits, and even competitors in meaningful partnerships that achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. Join this session to hear stories of impact from corporate citizenship professionals who have collaborated with sometimes-unlikely partners to move the needle on the SDGs that matter most to their business context.

You'll walk away inspired to connect with new collaborators and deepen your existing partnerships to really move the needle on your own programs. 

Workshop: Identifying and illustrating the stakeholders and issues that matter to you

The business community is now embracing what CSR professionals knew all along—that a wide array of stakeholders is vital to sustainable progress. In this informative workshop, you’ll learn how to prioritize stakeholder relationships and identify issues that are material to your unique context. You’ll walk away with practical tools to engage stakeholders that may have differing—or even conflicting—points of view, and map and track the issues that matter to your business on a materiality matrix—a dynamic illustration of how your company prioritizes the ESG issues that may impact your operations AND the opportunities you can capitalize on for shared value creation.

• Brendan LeBlanc, Teaching Fellow and Executive Advisor, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship
• Christopher Lloyd, Teaching Fellow and Executive Advisor, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship

COMMUNITY INVESTMENT AND SOCIAL IMPACT

Nonprofit board service: Getting your employees ready to serve

At their best, nonprofit board service programs offer benefits to both the business and the community. Engaged employees benefit from increased exposure and new skills and knowledge, while nonprofits receive valuable human capital, business acumen, and advocates to advance their missions. To be successful, corporate citizenship teams must prepare nonprofit board volunteers to address the legal, fiduciary, and fundraising responsibilities that come with nonprofit board service. In this unique ‘how-to” session, you’ll hear from peers that have developed the tools and support necessary to create successful matches to successfully foster a positive, visible presence in their communities.

You’ll walk away prepared to match your colleagues’ passions and abilities with potential board placements, enabling your nonprofit partners to make an even greater impact.

Going global—International volunteering & giving programs

As business contexts and supply chains become increasingly widespread and interconnected, so too do our community involvement programs. More than ever before, companies are developing and executing intricate employee volunteering and corporate giving programs that aim to engage their entire operations—and in some cases their entire markets. Join this session to learn the ins and outs of deploying a world-wide community involvement program—from vetting vendors, to navigating diverse cultural norms, to communicating shared goals to a wide array of partners.

You’ll walk away with examples of efficient and effective international volunteering and giving programs, and an understanding of how to overcome barriers to deliver impact globally.

Wicked big problems & the companies that try to solve them

As corporate citizenship professionals, you’re often called upon to help solve some of the world’s most difficult and intricate challenges. From climate change to access to education, from health and wellness to the world’s water crisis, you are expected to address complex issues using your own company’s unique resources. In this session, you’ll hear how your peers are tackling major social issues—such as housing, homelessness, and poverty—to help create a stable and thriving society that in turn offers the company the potential for greater growth. You’ll walk away with practical tactics that can help you navigate your own CSR challenges—no matter what they are—in order to deliver business and social value. 

Advancing education around the globe

We all need a trained workforce to advance in the global economy and organizations such as the OECD continue to predict a future skilled labor shortage that is expected to stall productivity and stunt future growth. Educational approaches and societal expectations about how companies engage with education vary greatly around the globe. Join this session to hear from global education experts about how CSR leaders can work most effectively to support educational initiatives around the world. You’ll gain valuable perspective about how your programs can be designed to meet and exceed a range of cultural expectations and how to collaborate with educational partners successfully to create programs that support youth today for a stronger society tomorrow.

COMMUNICATIONS AND REPORTING

Workshop: Crafting concise and confident communications: How to package a message

CSR professionals have complex jobs that affect a wide array of stakeholders. It can be difficult to convey the work you do every day to different audiences—but your ability to advance your programs (and yourself!) is dependent on how effectively you do just that. In this dynamic session, you’ll learn how to package concrete and concise messages that inform and influence every type of listener—and how your nonverbal communication habits may be undermining you. Come prepared with your current answer to the dreaded question: “What do you/your team do?” and walk away with a short, impactful, and flexible response that can take you from your elevator pitch to your CEO to a meeting with a local nonprofit partner—and everything in between.

• Facilitator:  Nancy R. Dunbar, PhD, Teaching Fellow and Executive Advisor, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship

Constructive collaboration with investor relations

Corporate citizenship and investor relations departments have never been more important. The market for socially responsible investment has grown significantly over the past decade. Nearly 50 percent of shareholder proposals in 2018 were ESG proposals, and the leading ESG-driven issues—climate change, labor and equal employment opportunity, human rights, and sustainability reporting—require the active involvement of corporate citizenship professionals. The market for socially responsible investment has grown significantly over the past decade also. In this session, expert panelists will demonstrate how they were able to work with colleagues in investor relations to help their companies meet shareholder demands and amplify their own CSR efforts.

You’ll walk away with tactical tips and tricks that will help you translate, communicate, and ultimately integrate your corporate citizenship programs with business strategy so you can advance both your company’s ESG objectives. 

How to use social media to amplify your CSR message

Social media has emerged as one of the leading vehicles to communicate with all of your stakeholders—from your employees to your consumers and beyond. While the potential of engagement is powerful, utilizing social media successfully requires a special set of skills: How do you convey complex messages succinctly? What is the value of image and video? How do you partner with your communications and legal teams to ensure timeliness and accuracy? When do you engage with dissatisfied stakeholders? In this session, you’ll hear from peers who have navigated these choppy waters to develop successful social strategies—aiding in program recruitment, message amplification, and knowledge sharing.

You’ll walk away with actionable tactics to employ in your own communication plans—whether you’re a seasoned tweeter, or just starting out.

Connecting employees to purpose through effective internal communication

Engaged employees are the silver bullet to nearly every ESG issue—from developing innovative green products to strengthening communities through volunteering. Research tells us that engaged employees are more productive, loyal, and efficient. In this session, you’ll hear from experts who have maximized employee engagement by involving their employees in solving social and environmental problems and by communicating results creatively.

You’ll walk away with a clear roadmap that you can tailor to your unique culture and structure for how to energize your employees.  

Creating your blueprint: How to tackle your first sustainability report

Today, stakeholders expect that companies make corporate citizenship commitments and that they communicate progress toward goals that address issues such as climate change and social inequality. As a result, companies are engaging in sustainability reporting at an unprecedented rate, with 93% of the 250 largest global corporations publishing corporate citizenship reports, and many smaller companies following suit. Those just beginning their reporting journey may be unsure where to start. Luckily, this session gathers experts who have experienced every stage of the process to help you navigate this landscape of framework and standards.

You’ll walk away with the confidence and know-how to measure and communicate your ESG impacts and opportunities.

SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability targets--setting and achieving bold goals

Research has shown consistently that companies that set quantified sustainability targets are more likely to improve their environmental performance. For corporate citizenship professionals looking to set their own goals, the number of considerations can be challenging. Which goals should be quantitative and which qualitative? Over what time period should you aim to reach them? How can you track and report on your progress? Thankfully, there are efforts underway to help you navigate these choices (such as the Science Based Targets initiative) and corporate trailblazers to inform and inspire you (the experts on this panel).

You’ll walk away from this session with ideas about how you too can set and achieve audacious environmental goals to deliver sustainable growth now and in the future. 

Accounting for environmental risk

From the Sustainable Development Goals to “We Are Still In”, companies are demonstrating consistently that they plan to take the lead in addressing climate risk. Over the past few years, innovative companies are stepping forward to manage their own environmental impacts with the same operational rigor they apply to other parts of the business. In this session, you’ll learn about some of the internal mechanisms companies are employing to mitigate their own environmental risk—from carbon and/or water pricing to executive compensation incentives.

You’ll walk away with insights from experts in the field, who will share how they assess, develop, and measure their efforts to drive value back to the business while preserving the planet.

Greening your workplace

Whether they work in the office, a factory, or are traveling the globe, all employees impact the environment in some manner. Companies can work to limit these impacts and reduce the carbon footprint of their operations by engaging employees in the effort. Join this session to learn about leading best practices in workplace sustainability initiatives—from going paperless to reducing food waste to limiting employee travel—while maintaining strong relationships with colleagues and customers.

You’ll walk away with tools to help design, implement, and report on your own workplace sustainability programs.

Workshop: Achieving a sustainable value chain through strategic partnerships

Increasingly, companies are expected to identify, measure, and limit environmental impacts--not only in their own operations--but throughout their entire value chains. By joining forces with other public- and private-sector initiatives such as industry associations, cross-sector coalitions, and nonprofit partners, you can gain a more complete picture of how your business is affecting the environment globally—from sourcing to product development to waste recycling and disposal. In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn how to gather and act on environmental data from a variety of sources, and how you can leverage strategic partnerships to tell a more complete story of sustainable success.

You’ll walk away with a clear sense of what types of partnerships would work best in your context, and how you can better audit, measure, and communicate the environmental impacts of your value chain. 

• Lance Pierce, Teaching Fellow and Executive Advisor, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship
• Stewart Rassier, Teaching Fellow and Executive Advisor, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship

CASE STUDIES

ALLY | Collaborating for maximum impact

Could your corporate citizenship programs be strengthened by collaboration across your company? Ally's Social Impact Squad offers a model for cross-functional collaboration and program implementation. In this session, you will hear from Ally's Marketing, Diversity & Inclusion and Corporate Citizenship team members to learn about how the bank utilized its cross-functional Social Impact Squad to realize its new economic mobility strategy and launch Moguls in the Making, an entrepreneurial pitch competition for students attending Historically Black Colleges. This session will focus on how Ally developed its cross-functional strategy and offer actionable insight into creating collaborative program models within companies.

• Reginald Willis, Chief Diversity Officer, Ally Financial
• Jacqueline Howard, Senior Director of Corporate Citizenship, Ally Financial
• Natalie J. Brown, Director of Corporate Citizenship, Ally Financial
• Beth Woodruff, Enterprise Senior Marketing Manager, Ally Financial

EY | EY Ripples: Setting corporate responsibility in motion, globally

Join this lead and learn session to walk through a case study of EY Ripples, a global approach to corporate responsibility. This session will cover the step-by-step approach to launching a firmwide corporate responsibility effort, from getting leadership buy-in, to assessing and anticipating strategic challenges. You’ll hear details about the benefits and challenges of launching a global program within a large company, and how concepts are operationalized at the national, regional and local levels.

You will walk away with the conceptual framework and concrete tools needed to jumpstart your own CR programming, whether local or large scale. Representatives from the EY Americas and Regional Corporate Responsibility teams will guide you through the process from the EY perspective, setting you on the path to launching or continuing your own ripple efforts at your company.

Angela Milano, US-West Corporate Responsibility Leader, EY

Sheri Beale, EY Americas Corporate Responsibility Supervising Associate

MASSMUTUAL | Beyond programmatic giving: A holistic approach to supporting our communities

In isolation, community programs and services aren’t nearly as effective as when they are coordinated. The same goes for grants and donations. What would our communities look like if CSR professionals drove collaboration amongst service partners and funders? What if we developed shared goals and worked together to remove barriers to progress/success? At MassMutual, leaders have started to explore the benefits of driving collaboration through their new place-based community impact strategy. Join this session to learn how they are developing, implementing, and measuring community initiatives that combine the best expertise of a variety of partners to make a lasting impact. Experts will candidly share the positive progress alongside the challenges and how they plan to navigate forward.

Dennis Duquette, Head of Community Responsibility, MassMutual

Ali Mathias, Head of Social Investments and Community Leadership, MassMutual

Meredith Hennessy, Principal & Practice Leader, Consilience Group

AnnaMarie Golden, Administrative Fellow, Office of Government & Community Relations, BayState Health

Jose Claudio, New North Citizens Council

CHARLES SCHWAB FOUNDATION & PROSONO | An ecosystem approach to strategic CSR

Join Charles Schwab Foundation and social impact agency, Prosono, as they share an exciting case study using a fresh approach to evolving strategic CSR practices.  In a recent strategy review, Charles Schwab Foundation utilized ecosystem mapping against their core social issue, financial literacy. This case study will share how this work, which encompassed an external ecosystem review, an internal program audit, and a metrics analysis, has helped the Foundation better define and align their philanthropic efforts to increase awareness of and engagement in core programs, and improve their ability to deepen social and business impact. Participants will walk away with an issue-agnostic framework to evolve your practice and improve your strategic approach to CSR.

Casey Cortese, Managing Director, Schwab Community Services & Charles Schwab Foundation

Julie Seltz, Principal, Prosono

Case Study Sessions Led By:

Workshop Series Sponsored By: