There are many different ways for a company to perform good corporate social responsibility (CSR). The benefits of good CSR programs can drive a company to do well while also doing good for its community or in the world. This “good” includes helping people through community involvement or helping the planet through environmental action. Ideally, this CSR will come through philantropoies, engaging in community building activities and responding to social issues both locally and globally.
Now, more than ever, journalists are looking for companies using their platform for good. Twitter is one to look out for. Below you will find a list of how they are performing good CSR during the times of a global pandemic.
Partnering with Organizations
Twitter partnered with The Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP) to support the #RecoveryMovement. With the Shelter in Place and places around the world closed, individuals in recovery or currently battling substance abuse are taking a hard hit during these times. This hashtag shows solidarity with those facing this internal battle and provides resources to help them get past this hard time.
Twitter also partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) on April 7, 2020, to help answer the questions people were posing on Twitter. According to their tweet, over six million questions had been tweeted within a few weeks about the Coronavirus. To answer these questions, they retweeted an answer from the WHO Twitter page and wrote the question associated with it.
Donating to Affected Organizations
Twitter said it best. “Right now, every journalist is a COVID-19 journalist.” Twitter donated one million dollars to the “Protect Journalists and the International Women’s Media Foundation.” As the economic distress of the country continues to worsen, Twitter’s hope with this donation is to help the employees of this organization stay employed. It is also helping to advocate for journalists during this time. “Their shared efforts to advocate for the rights of vulnerable reporters and to guarantee an equal share of voice for women in the industry has never been more relevant or important,” Twitter states.
Matching Donations
Not only is Twitter making donations to organizations, but it is also encouraging its employees to do the same. Twitter started a “COVID-19 campaign” which stated that every employee who donates to an organization relating to COVID-19 effort, would be matched up to $2,000 per donation, per employee. There are approximately 4,900 employees of Twitter, which means if every employee donated $2,000, the employees themselves would be donating approximately $9,800,000. With Twitter’s COVID-19 campaign, they would be donating up to $19,600,000 as a company.
Keeping Employees Safe
Twitter recently announced that employees will no longer have to return to the office to work after their offices open. Working from home permanently will be an option. They are quickly adapting to the times and are the first company to make this kind of change. Even when their offices reopen, it will be up to the individual employee whether or not they want to return. In addition to this, they have announced that all offices will be closed until at least September 2020 and no company events will be held for the rest of the year.
Samantha is a Marketing and PR Assistant at NRPR Group.