Everyone in the association community should read and comment on the draft “Guiding Principles for Associations in Social Responsibility,” one of the project outcomes from The Global Summit on Social Responsibility, sponsored by ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership earlier this year. (FYI, the window for submitting comments on the draft principles closes tomorrow.) And when you read the draft principles, here is one word you won’t find anywhere in them: poverty.

I attended the Global Summit, and there was precious little discussion of poverty over the three days of our gathering. I’m not sure why. Perhaps its because global climate change and “going green” are much higher profile and sexier topics these days. Regardless, the goal of eradicating poverty is just as important as any other issue of social responsibility. Consider the following realities from within our own country:

+The number of U.S. jobs paying a poverty-level wage increased by 4.7 million between 2002 and 2006, and the number of low-income working families increased by 350,000.

+Poverty-wage jobs increased during this period in part because 2.5 million new jobs paid poverty wages; additionally 2.2 million jobs that paid greater than poverty wages in 2002 became poverty-wage jobs by 2006, as pay failed to keep up with the cost of living.

+72 percent of low-income families work, with adults in low-income working families working, on average, 2,552 hours per year in 2006, the equivalent of one and one-quarter full-time jobs.

These numbers are staggering–and, quite frankly, embarrassing–for the world’s largest economy. So what should associations do about poverty? My advice is to do something that can make a lasting difference. Specifically, I suggest that associations stop treating poverty as a community service project, and start engaging with solving the problem as both a moral and strategic imperative. From point of view, both are quite clear. Associations are a part of the fabric of civil society, and our organizations should regard poverty for any human being as fundamentally incompatible with a compassionate and well-functioning social order. That is the moral imperative.

The strategic imperative is to view the nearly 10 million low-income families in the United States as the loyal and engaged members, customers and contributors of the future, but only if we can meaningfully and respectfully support their efforts to grow personally and professionally, climb the income ladder and achieve the dreams they have for themselves and their children. This strikes me as a compelling opportunity for socially responsible innovation, another phrase that, sadly, is not found in the draft principles developed by ASAE & The Center.

I invite you to share your thoughts on what associations should do about poverty, both here at home and around the world. Please post your comments below. There are still a few more hours left in Blog Action Day 2008. Please get involved.

Originally posted @ Principled Innovation LLC