Over the past thirty years many urban areas of the United States have seen significant declines caused by disinvestment related to growth outside of the regional core. While many businesses have followed the population shift to the suburbs, many major corporations remain in the center city. These corporations have the assets and influence to have a significant impact on the redevelopment of these declining urban areas.
A concurrent trend during the past thirty years has been a recognition of the responsibility of companies to address societal ills. This ideology is commonly referred to as corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR transforms a corporation‘s ability to improve its city into a responsibility to take an active role in that change.
To understand the application of CSR in a depressed urban area, the city of Cincinnati was studied. Despite a long and significant population loss in the city, many of the largest companies in the region maintain a strong presence in the city‘s urban core. Nine Fortune 1000 companies are headquartered in downtown Cincinnati as well as many of the area‘s largest employers. Fifteen of Cincinnati‘s largest corporations were studied to determine how corporations are fulfilling their community involvement expectations. Furthermore, the study analyzes how these efforts compare with contemporary urban best practices for community involvement. The study concludes by identifying Cincinnati‘s best practices, which serve as models for other companies locally and nationally.