London Benchmarking Group (LBG) International is a global network of 150 companies

The London Benchmarking Group (LBG)

CSI solutions facilitates LBG - SA.
London Benchmarking Group (LBG) International is a global network of 150 companies using the LBG Model to improve the management, measurement and reporting of Corporate Social Investment (CSI).

Companies around the world use the LBG Model and participate in LBG Benchmarking Groups to share and drive best practice in CSI. The LBG International network brings together these national groups to promote LBG as the international standard for measuring and managing CSI.

The LBG model was developed over 12 years ago by six leading companies in the UK who wanted to be able to better account for and benchmark their community contributions, this has now grown to 150 companies!

What is the LBG Model?

The LBG Model is a management framework for CSI professionals to:

Value inputs
Assess outputs
Measure the impact of corporate contributions to community programs. Adopting this approach improves program results and enhances reporting to key stakeholders.

LBG focuses more on what companies achieve as opposed to how much they spend.

Companies who use LBG are engaged in communities, they are committed over the long haul and want to achieve real results with what they do.

The measurement of achievement becomes the critical issue – as in the case with other business units, which is why it is said that The LBG model is applying business principles to corporate community activities.

The LBG model in essence covers four critical questions:

Why do we contribute?
Charity
Commercial investment
Commercial initiatives in the community
How do we contribute?
Cash
In Kind
Time
Management costs
What do we contribute?
Where do we contribute?

Benefits of the LBG

The LBG model provides a comprehensive and consistent set of measures for CSI professionals to determine their company's contribution to the community; including cash, time, in-kind donations as well as management costs. The model also captures the outputs and longer-term impacts of CSI projects on communities and the business itself.

Participation in LBG-SA enables participants to access an international network that reflects over 12-years of best practice.

The LBG Model encourages community managers to:

Account for their total community spend.
Analyse the costs and benefits of community programs consistently.
Improve management information to guide future strategy.
Shift the debate from cash contributed to benefits achieved.
Capture and value all inputs, such as time, in-kind giving and management.

Companies that join the LBG and apply the LBG model find that it can benefit the measurement and management of their community programmes in a number of ways.

These include

A complete understanding of the scale and value of the company's investment to the community - in several cases participants applying the model have seen the value of their community contributions almost double.
Assessment of what the company’s investment achieves - the model looks beyond the input costs of community investment to assess what this actually achieves for both the company and the community
Better management of the community programme – application of the model provides the information to assess how the programme achieves its objectives or fits with business goals
Making better decisions on future investments - the model provides a simple matrix for assessing the project achievements to feed into the decision making process
Better communication: internally and externally - simple summary information to communicate the community programme and its achievements.

Companies who form part of LBG internationally - include:

BHP Billiton	Barclays	Bristol-Myers Squibb
British Airways	BBC	British American Tobacco
Cadbury Schweppes	Citigroup	Colgate-Palmolive
De Beers	Deloitte & Touché	Deutsche Bank
Ernst & Young	GlaxoSmithKline	IBM
Johnson & Johnson	JPMorganChase	Kellogg’s
KPMG	Levi Strauss	Nestle
Marks and Spencer	McDonalds	Merrill Lynch
Nokia Corporation	Pfizer	PWC
SABMiller	The Body Shop	Coca Cola
Shell	Unilever	Vodaphone

Testimonials from members of LBG international:

"As a standardized reporting and measuring tool, the LBG model will be enormously beneficial in capturing and tracking our total community spending and the true value of staff involvement. This in turn will enable us to better plan and prioritize our community activities and to identify areas for adjustment."

Peter Slator, Chairman - Unilever Australasia

"What has been missing up to now is a consistent approach for companies to measure and report on the impact of their community investment programs. The LBG Model offers this approach."

Mel Wilson, Associate Partner - PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

"Relationships have always underpinned our corporate responsibility philosophy, and now with LBG Canada, we have the opportunity to document the complexities of each relationship, and as a result, more clearly understand the impact of our corporate citizenship efforts on our business and on society."

John Dundas, Sr. Vice President, Marketing and Communications - First Calgary Savings

"The LBG Model is supporting TELUS to achieve our vision to become Canada's premier corporate citizen. Our organization believes that 'what gets measured, gets done'."

Michelle Madley, Manager, Community Affairs - TELUS

"It's a focused group of people with a similar agenda. This makes it very easy to pick up good hints, tips and advice"

Bruce Learner, Community Affairs Manager - Kellogg's (UK)

Source: www.lbg-canada.ca and Measure to Measure - Celebrating the LBG's first ten years (PDF)

How to Participate in LBG South Africa

The London Benchmarking Group South Africa is administered by CSI Solutions, a specialist Corporate Social Investment consultancy based in Johannesburg.

For more information or to become a participant please contact:

Michelle at CSI Solutions on:
michelle@csisolutions.co.za or
011 646 9315

CSI Solutions - Corporate Social Investment