The United Nations Global Compact
In need of efficiently and effectively reviewing their communication messages, The United Nations Global Compact partnered with the Center of Social Impact Communication and six of its Cause Consultants, to develop a message guide for the UN Global Compact.
A Global Perspective
The United Nations Global Compact is the world’s largest Corporate Social Responsibility initiative. It brings companies together with UN agencies, government representatives and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to advance universal principles that foster a more sustainable and inclusive world economy.
Although the scope of the Global Compact is impressive—it includes 5,000 participating organizations in 120 countries around the world—it has consistently encountered a great deal of difficulty when attempting to convey what it represents. CSR is a multi-faceted concept that is not always easy to understand, and this has proven to be one of the greatest challenges that the Global Compact has faced when communicating with its stakeholders.
A Message to Business
During the Spring 2008 semester, the six Cause Consultants participated in a messaging seminar with three goals in mind:
- Explore the fundamentals of CSR from a stakeholder perspective
- Understand the goals of the UN Global Compact and the communication challenges it faces
- Successfully, analyze and develop a strategic messaging guide for the UN Global Compact.
In order to understand the current environment in which the Global Compact solicits support from companies and NGOs around the world, Cause Consultants researched and analyzed:
- Press reports
- Academic research
- Industry reviews
A final step included an audit of numerous Global Compact materials to obtain an understanding of how it had been previously communicating with stakeholders and what needed to be done to speak to those groups more effectively.
The Final Analysis
Cause Consultants identified the key message concepts and supporting facts that already appeared in Global Compact communications in order to have a basis upon which to create the message guide. They synthesized the existing Global Compact information into concise and meaningful message points, and also created a new boilerplate with a concise, easy to understand, message for Global Compact employees to use.
