Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): A Strategic Approach (edX)

Students will learn (a) how to leverage corporate structures and nonprofits’ experience to undertake CSR activities that have real public benefit, (b) the relationship between philanthropy and corporate self-interest, and (c) how ventures can assess whether they are doing good CSR, exploring topics including measurement, attribution, and cost benefit analysis.

Through this four-week course, students from either the business or the philanthropic sector will develop a greater understanding of both sides of the partnerships that underlie Corporate Social Responsibility projects. They will learn how they might improve their interactions with their cross-sector partners, develop better partnerships, improve their use of pooled resources, and deepen their impact.

Finally, they will learn from many examples of Corporate Social Responsibility across the world. This course will teach students interested in developing a CSR project to conduct a wider search than they may have previously undertaken to identify lessons and solutions that they may adapt to their own setting.

What you'll learn

- The relationship between philanthropy and corporate self-interest

- Corporate social responsibility (CSR) from a multi-stakeholder perspective

- CSR’s contributions to a company’s bottom line

- The influence of corporate cultures on competent CSR

- How to create, implement, and use a corporate code of conduct

- Principles and examples of CSR in the US, Netherlands, and India

- Criteria for successful corporate- community partnerships