Exploring nonprofit perspectives on CSR: The emergence of retail corporate volunteerism

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has predominantly been examined from a business standpoint, yet its implementation often involves the active participation of nonprofit organizations. While corporations may engage in CSR activities with the ultimate goal of business gain, questions arise regarding how these initiatives are perceived and utilized by their nonprofit partners to fulfill their missions. Surprisingly, limited research exists that explores CSR from the nonprofit standpoint. This study aims to bridge this gap by investigating the perspectives of nonprofits in relation to CSR initiatives, focusing on a case study of three nonprofit organizations operating in the Australia food rescue sector. By examining corporate volunteering programs as a specific CSR initiative, the study identifies both instrumental CSR and strategic CSR within nonprofits' perceptions of their CSR partnerships. Moreover, the study uncovers nuanced differences between nonprofits that choose to adopt retail corporate volunteerism—commercialize their corporate volunteering programs and those that reject such commercialization. These differences manifest in the form of strategic transactional CSR versus strategic relational CSR mindsets, as elucidated by Mirvis' (2012) CSR framework. This research contributes to the CSR literature by offering valuable insights from the nonprofit perspective. It also sheds light on the emerging phenomenon of retail corporate volunteerism and possible CSR motivations for its occurrence.