ABSTRACT
It has been argued that there are two broad motivations, or reasons, for implementing CSR activities (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2010). Intrinsic reasons place emphasis on the importance of a particular social or environmental issue and are underpinned by normative justifications: i.e., there is a sense that these issues are important enough in their own right to be addressed. Extrinsic reasons consider that CSR can be a way to add value to a business through improved reputation or increased customer loyalty (e.g., Dean, 2003; Porter and Kramer, 2006), demonstrating instrumental, performance-oriented motivations for CSR. Research has shown that consumer awareness of CSR activities is generally low (Bhattacharya et al., 2008), demonstrating that a key challenge faced by organizations is to communicate their CSR activities. This is an important aspect whether your motivation is to raise awareness of a particular CSR program amongst those individuals or groups that could potentially benefit (intrinsic) or as a way to position the brand of an organization (Lindgreen and Swaen, 2010) to gain business benefits (extrinsic). However, there are concerns that marketing CSR activities can be perceived as a form of public relations and lead to increased skepticism and cynicism (Mohr et al., 2001). Within sport, CSR initiatives can also be motivated by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. There are many different types of sports organizations that are involved in implementing CSR including
sport leagues, governing bodies, professional athlete foundations, and professional teams (see Part II of the handbook for a much more detailed discussions on this area). For a professional sports team, CSR initiatives may help to create goodwill within the community that the club is based; they may help to attract commercial sponsors to a club that want the association with community-based schemes; and initiatives around sport involving young children may identify potential future players. These can be seen as extrinsic motivations. However, in the professional football (soccer) industry in the UK, the vast majority of community work associated with football clubs is delivered by community trust organizations (see also Chapters 6, 24, and 25). These are a particular type of organization that uses sport as the vehicle with which to deliver a range of community-oriented initiatives. These organizations were formerly Football in the Community schemes that were an internal part of the organizational structure of a football club. However, research showed that football clubs were failing to understand what was meant by the concept of community and how they should respond to different stakeholders (Brown et al., 2006). The move to independent charitable status was seen as a way to overcome this issue and provided strategic and financial decision-making authority, allowing these organizations to focus on the implementation of CSR activities. It can be argued that the initiatives implemented by community trust organizations are fundamentally driven by intrinsic motivations and a firm belief that sport can be a mechanism with which to enact positive social change. This chapter focuses on the Charlton Athletic Community Trust (CACT) and in particular, the groundbreaking initiative “Street Violence Ruins Lives.” The aim of this initiative is to teach young people about the dangers of carrying a knife and of gang membership. The case study highlights the ways in which the CACT has communicated the aims and objectives of the “Street Violence Ruins Lives” initiative in order to raise awareness of the campaign. The chapter is based on my own personal experience and account of my involvement with the initiative. I enjoyed a 22-year career in the game that included two spells at Charlton Athletic, a brief but enjoyable period at Swindon Town, and eight very successful years as Marketing Executive of The Football League during the most impactful period of change in The League’s history. After leaving Swindon Town in 1999, I returned to Charlton Athletic FC in January 2000, first as Assistant to Peter Varney, the Club’s respected CEO, and then in 2006 as Commercial Director. During my time as Commercial Director I played an important role in helping to establish the Community Trust. Although I left my position as Commercial Director at Charlton Athletic FC at the end of the 2008/09 season, I am still involved with the CACT and continue in my roles as Chairman of CACT’s Women’s and Girls’ football department and of the “Street Violence Ruins Lives” committee, which I co-founded with my long-time associate, Jason Morgan, the CEO of the CACT.
