How to Research Socially Responsible Companies

These days corporate social responsibility is a major part of many organizations' strategic plans. Investors, employees and activists now demand that companies practice social corporate responsibility by caring for the environment or contributing to the communities these companies serve. If you are interested in investing in or purchasing products from a company that practices corporate social responsibility, researching it is the first move you should make.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Visit the company's website. Organizations often have community relations and employee relations sections on their websites that might divulge important information about a company's corporate social responsibility activities.
2. Read the shareholders' annual report for publicly traded companies, which you can obtain online or request from the organization directly. While most of this information is financial in nature, you can look at items such as upper-level management compensation and legal costs to see if the company engages in corporate social responsibility in its internal and external business decisions.
3. Subscribe to a wire service that sends company alerts. CSRwire and PR Newswire are two examples of news and press release monitoring services that can help you with researching corporate social responsibility (see Resources below).
4. Scour reputable publications' rankings for more information. "Fortune" magazine includes categories such as "Most 'Accountable' Companies" and "Saying No to Corruption" in its annual roundup of the top 500 companies in the world.
5. Local trade and professional organizations sometimes offer forums or seminars on corporate social responsibility. Attend a forum and ask questions. Networking with others who are also interested in this area of business opens the floodgates for more information.