The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) recently released an interesting report entitled “Measuring Impact Beyond the Bottom Line: Why measuring impacts on society makes business sense.”

It includes brief descriptions and discussions about how some world-wide corporations undertook a number of steps to put the idea of socially responsible enterprise planning into action. It’s an interesting collection of experiences, and most likely can be the source of much discussion about what is happening on this scale. (This study is viewable as this Month’s Case Study on my website, VentureCharities, or can be directly downloaded from WBCSD.org.)  

However, what I find more interesting is the WBCSD's outline of their overall objectives. In particular, I found that their objectives provide a great set of guidelines for the social sector (nonprofits and the public interest agencies) to do its own establishment of expectations for the teeter totter of social entrepreneurism.

At Venture Charities, this is part of what we expect to do as part of our consulting work.

 Here, specifically, are the objectives of the WBCSD, representing the input of 200 companies in a shared commitment to sustainable development and economic, ecological and social progress. They note specifically that their intention includes: 

• Business Leadership – to be a leading business advocate on sustainable development;
• Policy Development – to help develop policies that create framework conditions for the business contribution to sustainable development;
• The Business Case – to develop and promote the business case for sustainable development;
• Best Practice – to demonstrate the business contribution to sustainable development and share best practices among members;
• Global Outreach – to contribute to a sustainable future for developing nations and nations in transition.

So take “The Business Case” and “Best Practice” objectives, as examples.

Does the nonprofit/caring sector have anything approaching its own “Social Case” and “Best Practice” ideas that would help make sure businesses seeking to manage or market their new ideas have the guidance they need in their planning and implementation of better enterprise projects?

If such thoughts have been created, where are they? And how were they developed?

Or is it right for the social side to make its own Case and Best Practices?

Allan