Corporate Social Responsibility: Australian Case Study Innovation Capabilities: Not for Profit: Transforming Families and Children

Abstract

There is growing global awareness of the challenging societal needs of families and children that are having a long-term social impact on the wider community. The increased social complexities of families demand social innovation for services. Many of these services are delivered by Not for Profit (NfP) organisations that operate in risk adverse, political environments.

Wanslea is an NfP with a 75 year history of working with families and children experiencing vulnerability, and developing services in response to local needs in Western Australia. As a case study, Wanslea demonstrates social innovation, making far-reaching differences to the lives of families and children with resulting benefits to society.

This case study demonstrates how Wanslea strategically, through progressive adaptation and evolution, exploitation and exploration, successfully engages family and children by designing proactive and sustainable services and programs. These services improve the innovation performance and create long term, positive social impact. Terms such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and Social Innovation are not terms usually applied by Wanslea staff, rather, the focus is on social impact measures being introduced to meet political expectations for social change and funding governance.

By applying four targeted emerging practices, Wanslea has been able to establish the current scaffold that enabled strategic social innovation and resulted in creating social value that positively influenced business and society. The targeted practices included (1) Board strategy and board selection (2) Foundational strategies for aligning research, leadership education and professional practices (3) Brand awareness and reputation and (4) Partnership collaborations.