Many-a-times companies associate themselves with a number of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. They do this by contributing to charity organizations and various cause based sponsorship in hopes of improving their business reputation in the eyes of consumers’. But is this approach effective? Does it generate any ROI for your efforts in community participation? Not when motives behind such CSR programs are just to ‘appear’ socially responsible. Long gone are the days when people associated credibility to press releases and corporate sponsored causes. We’re living in times when the consumers are evolving: they’re highly aware of their surroundings, they know how things work, are always connected and can see right through corporate marketing initiatives. Unless your consumers see sincerity, relevance and transparency in your CSR initiatives, your efforts are bound to fail. 1. To truly reap the benefits of CSR, companies can start with understanding what really…