Chamber launches program to help with community involvement

Monday, May 14, 2007

Chamber launches program to help with community involvement

Plan comes in response to interest from executives, chamber officials

by Steve Monroe | Staff Writer

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After a survey showed business executives and chamber officials have a strong interest in various community involvement activities, the Business Civic Leadership Center, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has launched its Corporate Community Investment program.

The program, announced at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce office in Washington, D.C., May 11, will involve workshops with companies and chambers of commerce to advance community development initiatives. In addition, a report is to be issued on U.S. corporate community investment in December.

‘‘The next major step is to create the corporate working group which will convene this summer to identify the priority issues that this program needs to address,” said chamber spokeswoman Catherine Taylor in e-mail. ‘‘A big component of this program will involve chambers of commerce at the state and local level to assist in identifying the issues, resources, and relevant players in business, government, and nonprofits in their communities.”

BCLC recently polled corporate external affairs officers and chamber of commerce executives to identify priorities and attitudes regarding community investment. The responses showed that the leading ways the business sector invests in the community is through volunteerism (86%), followed by cause-related partnerships (75%), executive participation in community organizations (71%), and cash contributions (65%).

The survey also revealed that the most important issues affecting community development, according to the respondees, are K-12 education (71%), workforce development (68%), entrepreneurship and business development (48%), and higher education (47%).

The survey indicated that, by far, respondents prefer to pursue community investment initiatives at the ‘‘grassroots level,” with local schools, local charities, and local government agencies as partners rather than with national charities or the federal government.

BCLC Executive Director Stephen Jordan, said in a statement, ‘‘Companies are investing seven billion dollars annually as well as their time and energy in local communities across the U.S. This program will provide a national platform for business leaders to share lessons learned and effective practices and work toward common community goals with potential business, government and non-profit partners.”

Taylor said the BCLC is seven years old and is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s ‘‘voice and resource for business’ social and philanthropic interests.”