With a robust employee volunteering program and new initiative focused on veterans, southwestern Pa.’s Range Resources is a perfect case study in what CSR can do for communities and companies.
* * *
At natural gas development company Range Resources — a new member of the Satell Institute’s Pittsburgh chapter and the first Washington County (Pa.) business to join SI — company leaders understand something crucial about Corporate Social Responsibility:
The amazing power it has to tell a positive story about your organization (not to mention free enterprise in general).
“Our community outreach program is based on us wanting people to know who we are as a company,” says Christina Kramer (pictured, left), Range Resources’ Community Resources Manager and the point person for the company’s philanthropic and volunteer initiatives in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Those initiatives are many. Last year the company offered grass roots support to more than 400 nonprofits in the Washington County area. All that activity is great for the community, of course. But it also links back to a singular message: Range Resources is a business that’s having a positive impact on southwestern Pennsylvania. That’s a message that benefits the company in numerous ways.
It’s also one other companies can learn from. Here are two examples of how Range approaches CSR; the amazing benefits it’s seeing from that approach; and why its leaders are so excited to become part of the Satell Institute.
The Power of Employee Volunteering
When it comes to communicating values and community impact, some companies underestimate their biggest resource: their own employees.
Not Range. A pioneer in natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region, the company employs more than 400 people in Washington County, and it’s come to understand that those workers are the best ambassadors it has in terms of community reputation.
“When people think about Range, we want them to think about our people, because they’re our greatest asset,” says Kramer. “We want them to think about the time someone from Range volunteered with them at the Humane Society, or at the food pantry, or interacted with them at a career fair.” Such activities contribute to the greater good — and create positive associations with Range.
The company has long had a strong employee volunteer program — Range workers routinely participate in everything from cleaning up local streets to career days at local schools.
But last year the company adopted an inventive incentive program to encourage even more volunteerism: Range employees can now earn $25 per hour for their favorite nonprofit (capped at 20 hours per year) when they roll up their sleeves and volunteer. “Everyone has the opportunity to have $500 sent from Range to their favorite nonprofit,” says Kramer.
It’s an inspiring idea other companies can learn from, and the results have been extraordinary: Since implementing the program, Range has seen an astonishing five-fold increase in employee volunteer participation. “Our employees really responded well to the incentive and knowing that they’re earning money for their favorite nonprofit,” says Kramer.
The program is a win-win-win: Employees get the satisfaction of supporting causes close to their hearts. Nonprofits get financial support and volunteer energy. Range gets the benefit of having its employees out in the community.
It’s the sort of trifecta every company aspires to with its CSR initiatives.
Creating a Veterans United Fund — to Benefit Our Nation’s Heroes
Range has been similarly strategic in two other new initiatives.
Southwestern Pennsylvania has a large population of military veterans, and last year Range decided it wanted to make a bigger commitment to that community. The best way to do it? In a meeting with the United Way of Washington County, the idea was hatched for the Veterans United Fund, which would offer financial support to veterans organizations in Washington County. Range agreed to put in $50,000 of seed money while also having its own employees serve on the committee that directs where the money will go. Once again, the results have been impactful, with four different veterans organizations getting support in the initial funding cycle.
In that same meeting, Range also agreed to fund an initiative that aligned perfectly with its employee volunteering strategy — a United Way web site that lists volunteer opportunities at nonprofits throughout Washington County.
“We had been trying for a good year to launch a website for volunteer connections, and they didn’t hesitate to offer their support,” says P. Ann Hrabik (pictured, right), Executive Director of the United Way of Washington County. “When they talk about volunteerism, they really mean it.”
(The Washington County member of the United Way is hardly the only one that’s benefitted from the support of Satell Institute members. Seven United Way members count themselves as Nonprofit Affiliates in SI.)
A Mutually Beneficial Proposition
Range’s strategic approach to CSR not only helps the community, but also the company.
“Doing the right thing in the communities where our employees live and work is a mutually beneficial proposition,” says Laural Ziemba (pictured, center), Director of Public Affairs at Range. Its CSR activities help the community understand what Range is all about. They show support for Range’s current employees. And they help attract new employees.
“It’s really important for recruiting because this next generation, Gen Z, has a hyper-focus on what type of community service your company performs and what type of sustainability practices your company is engaged in,” says Ziemba. “That’s been really crucial for us from a recruiting standpoint.”
The Benefits of Joining the Satell Institute
Range Resources became aware of the Satell Institute through the United Way of Washington County. The more they learned about membership in the organization, the more they understood how they’d benefit.
“Being able to bounce ideas off other organizations, to get out of our bubble and see what other people are doing and share ideas, is really going to be beneficial for us,” says Kramer.
“I was just so moved by the level of participation of the member companies and their commitment to the Satell mission,” adds Ziemba, who recently took part in her first SI membership meeting. “It was so refreshing to listen to their ideas in a kind of think tank atmosphere. Whenever you’re in a room with like-minded people, the ideas just flow and they build off of each other. There was such a refreshing vibe in the room. You don’t get that a lot. This is something we are so very fortunate to be a part of.”