Top Community Investment Challenges

Sep 5, 2014 9:00 AM ET

Top Community Investment Challenges

One key challenge currently being faced many companies working in community investment is communicating the value of community investment—both internally and externally. A barrier to effective communications is typically due to lack of understanding. In some cases, a lack of understanding occurs when community investment, marketing, and sponsorship overlap. While an integrated model has the potential for successful collaboration around community investment priorities, it is important that each area of activity be clearly distinguished from the other.

While there is no silver bullet to address this and other challenges, a fundamental starting point is to ensure a common understanding of what community investment entails in an organization and why it is important. Although, this seems easy enough, robust community investment strategies, effective management systems and infrastructure and adequate resources for community investment program delivery, fall short of their potential without a common understanding.

To gain insight on the current challenges facing companies and how specific companies from across sectors are addressing key community investment challenges, join SiMPACT and LBG Canada participants at our annual meeting this September 23 and 24, 2014 in Calgary.

LBG Canada is a program that helps companies achieve their community investment priorities by providing participant companies with a recognized global standard for reporting results, access to a network community for best practices and ongoing management systems support from knowledgeable experts. Despite the year-on-year successes being achieved by LBG Canada companies, some challenges persist.