Corporate social responsibility is about doing your bit for your community. It can boost your business’s reputation and also change how you see yourself.

We speak to some very different businesses about their mentoring, charity, community and environmental initiatives, to find out why they do it. Corporate social responsibility. That’s something for big business and multinational brands, right? Well… maybe not. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a blanket term which covers the various ways a business – of any size – takes responsibility for the environmental, financial and social ramifications of work that they do. Simply put, it’s about balancing out the planet after you make money from it.

CSR is usually split into four major areas: sustainability, charity, volunteering and mentoring / training. It can take the form of everything from planting trees in the park behind your office to teaching underprivileged kids how to fix cars in your workshop after hours.

Sure, social responsibility programs are traditionally something only big business has the resources to deal with. But according to the NSW government’s Small Biz Connect program, CSR is becoming more widespread among smaller businesses. And not only does it raise a business’s profile in the community, it can change how a business perceives itself. The challenge is finding the right model to suit your business’s resources.