In his 2002 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush called
upon every American to commit at least two years of their lives—the
equivalent of 4,000 hours—to the service of others.
 In
response to the President's "Call to Service", a
diverse
group of business leaders came together in December of 2002 to create Business
Strengthening America (BSA) a self-directed, multiyear, peer-to-peer effort
to engage thousands of America's business leaders in a campaign to encourage
civic engagement and service. Following an initial meeting at the White
House with the President, the business leaders have worked collaboratively
to define a national, business-driven effort to engage our entire
community—from Fortune 500 corporations to small locally owned businesses—in
a campaign to strengthen American society.
These companies share a core belief: an increased commitment to
volunteering and civic responsibility builds a stronger society and will
enable businesses to "do well by doing good" because it deepens employee,
consumer and shareholder relationships.
By partnering with the nonprofit community to focus business expertise
and resources in a campaign to encourage civic engagement, the business
community can act as a "booster rocket" to current efforts by government and
nonprofit institutions to inspire Americans to serve in their communities.
Business leaders who join the BSA initiative share four main goals:
- Define a new corporate campaign to strengthen American society by
encouraging increased and effective civic engagement and service to the
community.
- Create a set of principles and tools that can guide how companies of
any size, in any industry, can develop their own policies and programs to
increase civic engagement and assist the campaign.
- Determine institutional changes and improvements businesses can make
to strengthen the ways employee service is encouraged, rewarded and
measured.
- Recruit additional business leaders to the campaign for service and
lead the effort to articulate specific, measurable activities that will
increase effective civic engagement.
Businesses can join BSA's effort to foster civic engagement by using the
registration form.
Business Strengthening America has developed a set of resources to
provide companies and corporations, regardless of industry or size, with the
tools and techniques — from basic steps to "best practices" — that they can
implement in order to help create a more engaged society.
These are some of the building blocks that companies, both large and
small, can put into place to promote and support participation in
volunteerism, public service and individual philanthropy:
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