National Hispanic Corporate Council Releases Findings of its First Community Relations Benchmarking Study

“The National Hispanic Corporate Council (NHCC), corporate America’s premiere resource on effectively maximizing the diversity of the Hispanic market opportunity, today announced the findings of a survey conducted with its Fortune 1000 member companies between April and July, 2007. Nearly one third of its members participated, providing in depth insight into their best-in-class practices.

Carlos Soto, President of the National Hispanic Corporate Council, says “NHCC is thrilled to launch this inaugural research survey. We received an incredible response from our corporate members. Their enthusiastic involvement resulted in more dynamic study findings.”

Following is a summary of key findings from the study:

Strategic planning is critical in developing outreach programs that address America’s major social issues.

— Companies routinely use strategic plans to guide their activities
about the major social issues facing American communities. 90% of
responding companies said economic development and education were
pressing social issues based on their company’s goals and objectives.

Companies leverage Employee Advisory Committees to develop and implement outreach programs.

— 60% of companies surveyed frequently use Employee Resource Groups. As
a general rule, these committees are led or advised by corporate
leaders.

Best-in-class companies make Community Outreach planning and results part of all accountable leaders’ performance assessment.

— 90% of companies surveyed indicate that the community outreach
participation is routinely part of a community relations manager’s
performance

Performance measurement systems that report results enable best-in-class companies to make decisions on future investments.

— Almost all companies surveyed produce internal and/or external reports
that communicate the goals and objectives tied to the community
outreach strategy. Companies are establishing quantitative metrics
that assess the value-add of their community outreach efforts, with
the end goal of assessing a quantitative link to ROI.

Findings from the survey indicate that investment in communities where the company conducts business helps affect change that improves the vitality of communities and their residents. Best-in-class companies invest at levels to meet the strategic goals that effectively support non-profit organizations.

More details on this study can be found at www.nhcc-hq.org .

About the study: The NHCC Community Outreach Study was made possible with funding provided by Shell Oil Company. The NHCC and its sub-committees developed the study. Barraza Consulting Group was selected by the NHCC Board of Directors to administer and report results of the community outreach study.

About the National Hispanic Corporate Council

The National Hispanic Corporate Council is a non-profit organization founded in 1985 by Fortune 500 executives who saw the tremendous business potential of the rapidly emerging Hispanic market. Today, NHCC is a membership organization of Fortune 1000 professionals. It provides best in class solutions and fosters professional networks by maximizing the Hispanic market opportunity among Fortune 1000 corporations.

About Barraza Consulting Group

Barraza Consulting Group is an integrated marketing strategy agency specializing in Multicultural Marketing. Its proven strategic approach effectively and consistently reaches and delivers consumers in high-growth markets. The Barraza Approach provides a deep understanding of consumers’ core beliefs, culturally relevant insights, and knowledge to craft strategies and messages compelling targeted consumers to chose their client’s brands and products over others.”

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