A group of community investment professionals in the Asia Pacific have participated in the region’s first-ever Strategic Community Investment Certified Training course focused on the LBG methodology.

The two-day intensive course was delivered in Singapore in May by Corporate Citizenships’ Junice Yeo, Director, Singapore and Simon Robinson, Director, Australia.

Attendees represented major companies including Singtel, Singapore Post, Credit Suisse and Crédit Industriel et Commercial Bank and were given the opportunity to develop their knowledge of community investment, its importance as a core function of a responsible organisation and how it can benefit the business.

Participants learnt about what it means to make their corporate community programmes a strategic part of their core business, and how to essentially measure the effectiveness of their investments using a simple inputs-outputs-impact framework. LBG (previously termed London Benchmarking Group), is widely known as the global standard for measuring corporate community investments, and is aligned to relevant indicators of reporting framework such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

Following the program, 100 per cent of attendees said it provided “a balance of theory and practical” information.

“The outcome of the training has been very encouraging in many ways. Not only did we have a number of good conversations and exchanges on live community programmes over two days, we realised how much potential there is for companies in Singapore to really make sense of every dollar they are spending on supporting social causes,” remarked Corporate Citizenship Director, Simon Robinson.

The program demonstrates the growth of strategic community investment in the Asia Pacific and the growing community of companies delving into a greater understanding of their community investment decisions using the LBG framework.