Guest post by Ivana Tranchini

Over the last decade, corporate social responsibility has moved its way up the boardroom agenda – well, for any successful organisation that is. Although this is a positive shift in the corporate landscape, and something I’m sure any communication consultant would advocate with their own clients, the movement has caused an element of complacency outside of office hours.

Given that many of us often work long hours, it’s understandable that finding time in our personal lives for charitable activity is almost impossible. However, personally, what I found to be equally challenging, was finding an organisation that I could actually contribute to, on more than just a financial level.

On January 1^st 2010, a friend and I made a New Year’s resolution to roll up our sleeves and actually ‘do’ something for one of our local community organisations. A simple task you would assume, however this wasn’t the case. After completing extensive and hugely time-consuming research, we found that we were either too old, too young, too inexperienced or too time poor. Basically, being a healthy, enthusiastic, active working woman wasn’t enough – what these organisations really needed was money.

Then, after finally finding an organisation that we were qualified to volunteer with (handing out pizza and water to party-goers on a Friday and Saturday night), the program was cancelled due to a lack of funding.

So, January 1^st 2011 rolled around and we still hadn’t done our part for the local community. Completely exasperated, we wondered when it had become so hard to lend a helping hand.

Upon further reflection though, we realised that although it feels good to actually get in and do something, money really does make the world go round, and like any organisation, the not-for-profit sector desperately needs cash!

However, it’s crucial that individuals don’t hide behind their company’s CSR initiatives as an excuse to avoid personal giving.  For those of us who can find the time for personal endeavours, we should be using our networks, both personal and professional, to generate support and encourage giving.

As a result of this journey, my reinvigorated colleague and I have found our niche – combining our enthusiasm for exercise with the opportunity to raise money for a worthy cause. This Sunday, March 6^th, we will be taking part in the 20Twenty Challenge; a fundraising event organised by the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, which raises money for people, particularly children, suffering from Cerebral Palsy.

The event involves a 2 km ocean swim, 3 km kayak and 20km walk/run – something that will definitely be a challenge for us both! At the end of the day however, we really hope that this provides an opportunity for our friends, families and colleagues to do their part for the community, and all by just by clicking a button!

If you would like to sponsor me and my team on this journey, simply go to the following link – http://www.20twentychallenge.com.au/awesome_foursome_8

Ivana Tranchini is a Senior Associate in Burson-Marsteller’s Sydney office.

Here I am speaking with Glen Frost of Australia’s The PR Report about Burson-Marsteller’s approach to Evidence-Based Communications:

A few weeks earlier at New Delhi, here I was interviewed by Ashwani Singla, the CEO of Genesis Burson-Marsteller, India’s premier public relations consultancy. Of particular interest to PR industry types is our tackling of the procurement trend in communications services.