COVER STORY
Fall 2016 / Issue 51
Real CSR is About
Enduring Partnerships
H
abitat for Humanity Macedonia,
an affiliation of
the Habitat for
Humanity global
network, is non-profit NGO
dedicated to providing simple,
decent and affordable homes
for those living in poverty. Its
work has shown that building
homes does more than put
a roof over someone’s head;
clean, decent, stable housing enables families to provide
stability for their children and
health, safety and security
improve educational and job
prospects. Habitat Macedonia’s programs include energy
efficiency for the residential
sector, a home improvement
fund as well as programs dedicated to the improvement of
the living conditions of most
marginalized communities in
Macedonia. So far, the organization has helped over 7,000
families around the country.
The Habitat model is sustainable because it is not a
giveaway program. All donations go into a Revolving Fund
that is used to build or renovate
still more Habitat homes and
help more families. Low income
families are eligible to use this
revolving fund through affordable, no-profit loans.
The organization relies
on financial donations which
help purchase land, supplies,
equipment and professional
12 AMCHAM MAGAZINE
Author: Kalina Sejfula, PR
& Donor Relations, Habitat
for Humanity Macedonia
services for ongoing program activities. Its work would
not be possible without the unwavering support and
commitment of its partners. Locally, Habitat Macedonia provides resources for its programs from institutional
donors, corporate donors, donations from other Habitat
organizations and individual donations. The possibilities to join the organization in the fight against poverty
housing and homelessness are many, and may be done
through volunteering, financial donations, donations in
kind and more.
Corporate donors are key to achieving Habitat’s mission, which is why these partnerships are tailored create mutual benefit. Corporations have started in recent
years to view such partnerships as an opportunity to
fundamentally strengthen their businesses while contributing to society at the same time. In such long term
projects, business’ focus moves beyond enhancing their
public image and toward demonstrating core values by
addressing major social challenges.
Businesses often pursue CSR activities as an add-on
to their core business (e.g., sponsorships, philanthropy).
Local examples include help for sick children, sports
team sponsorships and disaster response (the recent
floods in Skopje prompted individual citizens to donate
over 400,000 EUR). Unfortunately, such actions have
limited, short-term impact and do not provide sustainable community solutions.
Beyond financial support
Employees often choose to associate with organizations whose values resonate with their own. Thus, donations almost exclusively go hand-in-hand with employee
engagement and leading by example. What is more,
engaging employees as volunteers starts at the top,
where corporate leaders make a personal commitment
to work on construction sites to realize the full potential
of the partnership. Habitat’s “Global Village” program
gathers such volunteers on a trip to build homes for
families in need all around the world.
Whirlpool is one of Habitat’s largest global legacy partners, having supported the organization since
Fall 2016 / Issue 51
COVER STORY
1999 in both conventional and
unconventional ways. Their support has ranged between $5-10
million annually, including corporate and employee donations,
product donations and employee’
direct engagement in building projects. Habitat Macedonia was a
proud host of one of those teams
that were building new affordable
homes for the low income families
in Veles.
ArcelorMittal and Habitat for
Humanity have been working
together since 2008. The company
regularly organizes so-called Solidarity Holidays with Habitat, which
is an opportunity for employees to
spend time in a foreign country,
learn about different culture, and
work as volunteers in a project that
benefits local communities. Moreover, they have supported the organization with financial donations
to a number of Habitat-affiliated
organizations. Habitat Macedonia
hosted a volunteer construction
team of high representatives from
all ArcelorMittal Europe affiliates.
The company also supported Habitat Macedonia with a donation of
$100,000 to its revolving fund for
energy efficiency projects.
Another example is the partnership with Knauf, another example
of global partnership that resulted in
a number of employees and managers exchanging their office suits
for the working site equipment.
The Knauf group contributed both
volunteers and important building
materials. In Macedonia, the Knauf
group made a donation in kind
worth 10,000 EUR that were used
to build new homes for local families in need.
These are just a few examples
of market leading, international
companies operating in the region
that have developed or adapted
their CSR strategies to the local
market. While interest from the
Macedonian business sector in
long-term partnerships remains
relatively weak, Habitat Macedonia
stands ready to create functional
and mutually-beneficial cooperation models whenever companies
are ready.
AMCHAM MAGAZINE
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