Box Tops 4 Education

When corporate law types talk about corporate social responsibility, most activities fall into two categories. First, corporations can publicize steps they take to minimize the negative impact of its operations or its industry, such as energy companies researching alternative fuels or investing in nonrenewable resources strategies. Second, corporations can make direct investments in community projects as part of its budget, such as a restaurant chain donating a percentage of its proceeds on a certain day to a specific cause. The General Mills Box Tops 4 Education campaign falls into the latter category. This campaign, which gives schools 10 cents for every box top submitted, is only one of many community, outreach, and environmental programs listed in General Mills' Corporate Social Responsibility 2004 Report. The report also quotes a Harvard Business School case study of a different General Mills program, Hawthorne Huddle, as being a "model of corporate citizenship and direct social investment in engaging and building local communities."

I have become obsessed with the box tops program.

Last year, my daughter and I probably submitted 20 box tops a month at a minimum. (FYI -- the "box top" is now just a symbol that appears on the label of a variety of General Mills brands, whether the product is in a can, tube, or box.) I was very adept at knowing what products had box tops and whether the additional cost of the Old El Paso chiles was worth the box top. This year, I am not the only mom to have noticed that the box tops are almost microscopically small. Small and in hard to find places. Also, the list of box top products has changed, although I cannot tell if it is a smaller list. I do know that we eat the same foods we did last year, but our box top accrual is way, way down.

If General Mills decides that the eight-year box tops program is too costly, can they change the program without a backlash? The box tops that I've been clipping state that they are good until 2006, but that doesn't guarantee that new products rolling off the assembly line will continue to have box tops on them. Is shrinking and hiding the box top a way to scale down the program under the radar?

I can't help but think that a community program like this is like a stated dividend policy. You get a lot of good press when you announce the policy, but you have to be committed to maintaining the dividend.

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