Positive Community Impact Program

 

 

As DaimlerChrysler uses its wide-ranging resources to remain competitive in the changing transportation industry, one resource we must consider is the communities in which we operate and our employees reside. While DaimlerChrysler contributes to communities in the form of employment and taxes, we are also consumers of natural and public resources. As we prepare to consider the future, we must shift our perspective from simply existing with the local environment to improving it and the lives of residents. Whether acting alone or participating in collaborative efforts, DaimlerChrysler has unlimited opportunities to respond to community needs. This community relations plan is necessary in order to provide focus to our efforts and to maximize DaimlerChrysler’s contributions of money, time and employee volunteers for the best possible benefit to DaimlerChrysler and its members.

For DaimlerChrysler we are recommending a “Positive Community Involvement Program” that can help managers and employees find the available organizations and resources to help DaimlerChrysler make the most effective positive community impact. This plan acknowledges the realities of limited budgets and clearly addresses the diverse forms of contributions including cash, in-kind gifts, products, services, and employee volunteers. This plan also addresses the questions of “what is the rationale behind community relations?”

Companies can no longer be all things to all. Community relations has become more strategically oriented and companies now realize well-placed contributions can directly help the community and improve our image. The goal of the “Positive Community Involvement Program” is to create a win-win situation for DaimlerChrysler, employees and the community by pooling our resources company-wide and supporting the interests of employees in areas that do the most good and have a positive impact.

     

PLAN SUMMARY

      A quality community relations program can have a positive impact on DaimlerChrysler’s bottom line. Nationwide, among other large companies, the focus of a company's involvement in community relations has shifted during the 1990’s toward improving the quality of life in the communities they have an interest. In the past, many companies got involved in their communities only in response to major emergencies or natural disasters. In the 1990s however, most corporations' philanthropic roles have become multi-faceted, encompassing giving, employee volunteerism, group promotion and in-kind giving. This is a new trend that DaimlerChrysler needs to follow or get left behind in the competitive transportation environment. The best way to gain increased visibility, stay in contact with community leaders and help build employee moral is through a community relations program that embraces multi-faucted programs and gains employee involvement at minimal cost to DaimlerChrysler.

      Over the years, traditional giving practices have evolved to the extent that the interests of many 'stakeholders' have become integral to DaimlerChrysler’s community relation’s strategies. These are four principal stakeholders -- the corporation, its owners, its employees and the communities – directly determine DaimlerChrysler’s community involvement strategy. As a result, this corporation needs to play a much broader community role today than in the past and develop a “turn-key” community relations program. Today, companies with active community relations programs are working to create and manage projects and groups that help resolve key community issues aligned with company goals. That is exactly what DaimlerChrysler needs to be doing once employees help to define those goals beyond the United Way.

      Internal demands necessitate that our community involvement programs become more efficient, focused, leveraged and bottom-line oriented. Community problems cannot be solved by money alone. We need to consider ways to add value to philanthropy funds as a social investment by leveraging community investments, including cash gifts, product donations, in-kind gifts, and volunteerism of employees, through coordinated community relations efforts. This has come to be known as a company’s “value-added social investment.”

      Effort must continue to energize DaimlerChrysler’s community relation’s efforts to build stronger bridges of communication with the communities near our operations. Efforts during the past to assign plant employees “community contacts” have met with limited success. Instead, we should build a community relations program that responses to existing employee strengths and interest areas while also meeting the challenge of communicating with important community individuals, the media and the public at-large. This report lays the groundwork for our “Positive Community Impact Program,” explains how our community relations plan can be given a consistent focus throughout DaimlerChrysler and how our efforts can meet particular goals benefiting our four stakeholders. The following minimum activities at DaimlerChrysler would bring community relations back to an effective level:

·        Determine DaimlerChrysler’s community emphasis – or where our time and energy need to be spent -- at our three locations by employee committee. This will serve as a guide and justification for future contributions and employee involvement.

 

·        Develop and support a public education partnership at each of the three locations.

 

·        Develop a non-profit matching gift program at each location with money set aside on an annual basis for community donations. In this way, DaimlerChrysler will be supporting non-profit programs that DaimlerChrysler employees support with their money and, in turn, supporting an employees interest.

 

·        Develop a plan to guide DaimlerChrysler’s cash and in-kind donations so a consistent theme emerges.

 

·        Publicize our community activities and volunteer committees via publications, our web site, etc.

 

·        Have each power plant host at least one "open house" or community event yearly.

 

·        Encourage all employees to be active in community and civic organizations. Community involvement should be one of the performance areas assessed during annual reviews.

 

·        Support employee involvement in the community with time and money.

 

·        Sponsor “information lunches” at all three locations for community leaders.

 

·        Develop community goals and objectives that can be met by employee involvement in existing community groups like: like Boy and Girl Scouts, volunteer fire boards; and community groups, like Rotary or the Chamber of Commerce. In this way, DaimlerChrysler’s relationship with its community will be more extensive and diverse because each employee will be a representative of DaimlerChrysler.

 

·        Develop a volunteer grant program that will allow DaimlerChrysler employees to request funds on behalf of an organization they volunteer for without seeking funds from management on a one-to-one basis. Organizations receiving the grants must fall into at least one of the area’s of community emphasis agreed upon by employees.

 

·        Administer the program, publicity, gifts, scholarships and volunteer efforts that make up the “Positive Community Impact Program” from DaimlerChrysler’s headquarters with one person devoted as program coordinator.

 

      No matter what “project” or portion of the community relations plan we embrace, we need to remember that community relations is an intangible asset. In this “new economy” many traditional balance-sheet items have been eliminated or reduced. Instead of building their own factories, companies like Dell and Nike now outsource their manufacturing. Instead of owning their own trucks, companies lease them. Just-in-time deliveries and shorter manufacturing cycles reduce the value of inventories and “work in progress.” The switch from products to services and the significance of brainware over hardware adds to the growing irrelevance of traditional balance sheets. Many of the new assets – employee commitment, customer satisfaction and retention, investor loyalty, respect among opinion builders, confidence in the leadership – are seen as intangible assets, in the old sense of the word. Our community relations plan, the “Positive Community Impact Program,” is designed to strengthen all of those intangible assets.

RATIONALE BEHIND COMMUNITY RELATIONS?

A good community relations program is essential to promote DaimlerChrysler as a responsible, active and important DaimlerChrysler member of nearby communities. An active community relations effort is the single best way to promote DaimlerChrysler, increase our visibility and gain positive coverage of DaimlerChrysler. The role of community relations has become more strategically oriented since companies now realize that well-placed charitable contributions can directly help the community and improve a company's sales and image. These types of contributions include employee's time and cash as well as the promotion of an event or a group.

      The goal is to create a win-win situation for DaimlerChrysler, its employees and the community. We can pool resources by supporting employees existing special interests. However, we do need to select an area that does the community good, matches DaimlerChrysler 's mission, has a positive impact on DaimlerChrysler 's image and receives community attention.

        There are several keys to selecting an area of emphasis. First, we must locate ideas that provide low-cost goodwill. These may involve creative ideas where you need little or no budget or areas that could make use of existing employee skills.  This certainly applies to tours and fundraising drives or collection efforts that employees organize themselves. Second, we must select an emphasis area that can be accessed and shown to have a positive return for DaimlerChrysler. For example, can we measure how supporting public education through school partnerships has benefited DaimlerChrysler and the school? And third, we must be prepared to publicize the good work employees are doing with more frequent and professional releases from headquarters. All of these features and DaimlerChrysler’s involvement with these areas of emphasis can then be expanded through scholarships, a matching gift program and the volunteer grant program.

Community involvement programs can:

·        Instill employee pride in the company.

·        Causes employees to recognize the company as a good place to work;

·        Increases respect of the company because it is an acknowledged contributor to community betterment which can improve employee recruitment; and

·        Improves moral by supporting employees in volunteering time, skills, and talent.

 

WHAT ARE THE AREAS OF INTEREST?

      Employee committees should select two or three target areas.  Possible areas of interest include: public safety, education, historic preservation, recreation or youth development and economic development. Selecting interest areas can help with yearly budget planning since all requested charitable contributions would need to impact one of the interest areas. If a group requests a donation for the "family violence center," and that organization does not match the two or three existing areas of community support, the manager has an easy and understandable reason to deny the request. In other words, this type of framework gives management and DaimlerChrysler a set of guidelines to operate within and gives management a reason to support or reject a project. The same type of justification exists with the matching gift program and volunteer grant program.

 

SUPPORTING ACTIVITIES

      There are some tangible and necessary actions that DaimlerChrysler must undertake in order to get a company-wide community relations effort underway. These are in addition to the specific projects and events referenced in Appendix A. These include:

1. Establish a budget for a community relations advertising.

2. Further DaimlerChrysler 's involvement with "Partners in Education" programs at all locations.

3. Host a community relations training seminar for key plant employees.

4. Develop company and employee giving programs.

5. Place an emphasis on community participation on our web site and in publications.

 

Actions by plant employees should include:

1. Host information lunches at the plant for community contacts.

2. Host at least one "open house" each year.  These might include, but are not limited to, inviting news media to the plant for a tour; having a tour for chamber of commerce officials; hosting a civic club meeting at the plant; or having a large-scale traditional open house to which the public at large is invited.

3. Have several employees actively involved in each of the major community and civic organizations like the Chamber of Commerce,  Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club and Lions Club. Membership dues and related expenses would be paid by DaimlerChrysler.

 

Develop criteria for saying 'yes' and 'no'

DaimlerChrysler resources are limited and the competition among nonprofits to access DaimlerChrysler is increasing. Do nonprofits a favor and take the guess work out of their fundraising efforts.

·        Create a reasonable mission statement.

·        Be succinct about the company's interests and flexible enough to meet changing community needs.

·        Give senior managers the opportunity to consider how to effectively utilize company resources.

·        Establish written policies and guidelines.

·        Be clear about what you will and will not do.

·        Publish your guidelines and interests.

·        Respond to applicants with standardized letters or postcards.

 

Develop a decision-making structure

·        Involve employees from different functions and varying levels of seniority. Keep in mind that employees are often very knowledgeable about community needs.

·        Have a systematic way to evaluate proposals.

 

Organize and select programs or projects

·        Don't try to support every worthwhile cause.

·        Organize a committee to review giving options. It takes teamwork.

·        Encourage employee ownership and executive participation.

 

Community involvement committees

      Many companies use community involvement committees to increase employee commitment. These committees offer employees an opportunity to participate in the decision-making process and implementation of programs.

      Committee members may be management or non-management, and represent multiple departments and multiple locations. Responsibilities may be formal or ad hoc. A majority of committees have the authority to review and make decisions about grants. Some committees are charged with developing policies, formulating interests, developing budgets, and identifying programs. This group serves as an important conduit between executives and employees.

      Corporations with multiple sites may allocate resources to divisions from headquarters or may encourage giving by setting up site budgets. Regardless of the budget structure, DaimlerChrysler resource decisions are most effective in the hands of employee committees close to local community issues.

 

Matching gifts

      To yield maximum community impact, DaimlerChrysler community involvement programs should consider the diversity of employee interests, values, and community priorities. Encouraging both management and employee participation strengthens a company's community involvement and investment strategies. About 10% of companies nationwide offer their employees the opportunity to contribute to any nonprofit. Matching gifts programs vary greatly with employee eligibility, area of focus and interest (most common is higher education), and matching gifts ratios. This kind of program is extremely effective for companies with employees located at multiple sites across the U.S. Several Silicon Valley firms have international matching gifts programs in place as well.

 

·        DaimlerChrysler 's Matching Gift Program helps employees support accredited educational, cultural, and health care institutions by matching their annual contributions up to a set annual amount. Through this program DaimlerChrysler’s employees are able to help determine how to spend a portion of the company’s philanthropic resources since recipient organizations are groups employees actually contribute to according to the program's guidelines. All eligible gifts are matched by DaimlerChrysler $1 for $1. However, because of the voluntary nature of the program, matching gift requests must originate with the employee.

 

·        Employees from DaimlerChrysler can request funds on behalf of an organization they volunteer with through the Volunteer Grant Program. The Community Relations Committee will review requests twice a year and contribute funds from a pool of money, established annually, until those funds are depleted. Individual grants are restricted to $500 per employee request and $500 per organization. Organizations receiving the grants must fall into at least one of the area’s of community emphasis agreed upon by employees.

 

Employee volunteer management in a nutshell

The success of our community relations depends on a formal volunteer program at DaimlerChrysler. DaimlerChrysler must encourage and provide incentives for employee volunteering; make community involvement something that is considered in an employee’s review; and encourage employee service on civic commissions and on nonprofit, school, and civic boards.

·        Our community involvement plan must be employee-driven with activities such as canned food drives, holiday toy collections, and blood donations. These programs start with a small number of employees and limited activities and expand as employee participation increases and resources permit. Small and medium-sized firms typically rely on their employees to initiate and run their donation and volunteer programs. Their programs are managed through the marketing, communications, or human resources departments.