| Upgrading CompaniesÂ’ Image through CSR |
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Jakarta (Investor Daily: 02/08/06) Companies’ social responsibility to share with local communities is getting bigger. Besides improving company’s image the Corporate Social Responsibility, also improve company’s performance. It is still very early, but the employees of Standard Chartered Bank Indonesia (SCB Indonesia) are very eager to clean up the Muara Angke conservation on Tuesday (8/1). Wearing gloves, their shoes covered in plastic bags, those men and women who usually smell expensive perfume, well-dressed, and wearing ties, do not seem reluctant to march on the sticky earth and collecting plastic trashes one by one. In less than two hours the entire inorganic trashes scattered on the protected forest owned by Jakarta administration has been collected in the available trashes bags.
That’s how the SCB Indonesia carries out its Corporate Social Responsibility to the community and environment. The cleaning up is a follow up of the planting of 10 thousands mangrove tress in Muara Angke carried out by SCB Indonesia in cooperation with Mangrove Study and Development Centre (Lembaga Pengkajian dan Pengembangan Mangrove) and Natural Resources Conservation Agency (Balai Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam) of the Forestry Ministry carried out in 2002-2003. So far, many companies maintain scholarships in their CSR programs. PT Sun Life Financial Indonesia, for instance, through its CSR program ‘Sun Bright’, provides scholarships for 32 students in Surabaya, Medan and Jakarta. The company also donates 1,100 books for elementary schools in those cities. In Jakarta, for instance, scholarships are granted for students in General Health Faculty, Social Political Sciences Faculty and Faculty of Literature at the University of Indonesia. A little bit different, Sampoerna Foundation (SF) that so far has granted more than 18,300 scholarships from elementary school level to post-graduates, also run the School Quality Improvement Program ( SQIP) by adopting six schools in Sumatera, Java, Kalimantan and Bali. In Aceh SF has been working with local partners to rehabilitate the devastated education sector. SF also facilitates private sectors to support national education development through CSR programs with fund management and providing access of apprenticeship in big companies. Moreover, SF also collaborates with the Bandung Institute of Technology to establish Sampoerna School of Business and Management ITB (SSMB ITB), targeting executives and corporate leaders. The most interesting is the school that will start its executive MBA program in February will focus on case analysis on local and foreign companies. Stock Price May Fall CSR has become an obligatory program for companies. “Business exists because there is a social contract between entrepreneurs and the community who had given their approval. Therefore, in the business there should be a benefit to be given back to the society which is called corporate social responsibility,” said Edi Sawasono, Chief Corporate Social Responsibility of PT Astra Internasional Tbk in a talk show on “Leadership in Corporate Social Responsibility” held by Sampoerna Foundation. Director of Communications Engage Indonesia, Natasya Kiroyan, shared similar opinion with Edi, saying CSR program is necessary for a company to maintain a durable relationship with all the stake holders, namely, the government and the community. In the past, companies could ignore the surrounding communities, and they only dealt with the government. However, currently the community has a higher expectation and become more critical. A good CSR program, she added, has to reflect the triple bottom line, which consist of economic, social and environment activities. She is certain, that with a good program, companies will get a positive image from the society and this will indirectly boost company’s performance.”" Therefore, there are three slogans that should be kept by companies, namely, people, planet, profit,” said the executive in a consultant company who help increasing awareness of corporate social responsibility through partnership with development sector. Companies’ awareness on CSR activities, according to Natasya, has already existed, but not optimally. “Most of multinationals already carry out their CSR programs because they have to follow the policy of their headquarters. Meanwhile local companies still needs their awareness increased,” Natasya added. As a multinational company, SCB Indonesia takes its CSR commitment very seriously. Moreover as stated by SCB Indonesia’s head of corporate affair Sita Sirait, the commitment has been decided from SCB’s headquarters in England. “A slight negligence could plunge the price of our stocks,” said Sita Sirait who used to work in protected forest while she was studying Biology at the University of Indonesia. How about SF? “Through our programs, we want to help education institutions in Indonesia,” said Sapto Handoyo Sakti, Sampoerna Foundation’s Communication Director. Companies are taking this very seriously, and they have a special allocation for the CSR. SCB allocates US$ 22.4 million or 0.86% of its profit in 2005 for CSR program in its offices scattered in 50 countries. This year SF allocates Rp 50 billion for its program to broaden education access and to improve education quality in Indonesia.
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Who We Are
Sampoerna Foundation (SF) is a professional philanthropy organization and a service provider for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with absolute focus in the field of education. Since 2001, we have given out more than 35,000 scholarships, adopted 22 schools, offered world-class training for teachers and principals, and set up a student loan facility.
We are committed to transparency and accountability in all our activities and expenditures. Outsourcing your CSR activities through SF will allow your company to leverage our best practices and knowledge from more than 200 experts in education and philanthropy management. Sampoerna Foundation is certified ISO-9000-2001 for its quality management systems.
