04
CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP TYPOLOGY OF DAX 30 COMPANIES
THE
DONORS
THE
SPONTANEOUS
$
E.ON
Commerzbank
Fresenius SE
RWE
Siemens
ThyssenKrupp
range of resources, including financial and non-financial, and
be driven by a dedicated organization with clear responsibilities
to steer its activities. Furthermore, good Corporate
Citizenship should be impact-driven and measured against
the results the company intends to achieve.
According to this conviction, we analyzed the Corporate
Citizenship activities of DAX 30 companies using similar parameters
to those we would apply to analyze their core business.
And we compared the Corporate Citizenship activities
of DAX 30 companies with German and international good
practice examples to illustrate the vast and yet often untapped
potential of Corporate Citizenship in tackling today’s
societal challenges.
Our analysis shows that every DAX 30 company engages in
Corporate Citizenship activities and is therefore in general
aware of the need for corporations to contribute to society
and help to resolve its current challenges. However, even
though our analysis reveals that more than EUR 500 million
are donated annually to societal causes, only a few DAX 30
companies take a strategic approach to Corporate Citizenship
and fully leverage their resources and skills. 83 percent engage
in three or more topics, showing a rather limited focus.
Another 83 percent engage in the area of education e.g. by financing
a new building or a lecture series. Although certainly
positive, this is not connected to the companies’ core competencies
and does not build on their strengths. Furthermore,
only 17 percent report on the results of their activities with resilient
key performance indicators (KPIs), indicating a lack of
results orientation. One DAX 30 company even stated it was
“not aiming at achieving so-called results”.
Overall, only one company, E.ON, is classified as “Spontaneous”,
i.e. without a discernible Corporate Citizenship
strategy. Five companies are categorized as “Donors”,
whose Corporate Citizenship approach is associated with
a rather diluted focus, short-term resource planning and
the assumption that their monetary donations are being
used wisely by NGOs. Next to this group are 17 companies
whose Corporate Citizenship approach can be considered
“Committed”. They are addressing a number of challenges
long-term and have allocated considerable resources for
this purpose. However, they tend to be not very ambitious
when it comes to results orientation. Seven companies
have a strategic Corporate Citizenship set-up with well-defined
focus areas and an allocation of substantial resources
that are geared towards achieving measurable results.