Community Investment is a strategic management approach to a company's donation, philanthropy or citizenship program.  The core principle is that a company's donation budget should receive the same rigorous attention as any other expenditure.  There should be alignment with the business, clearly defined goals and objectives (both for delivering benefit for the community and the company), evaluation and a focus on results.

Corporate citizenship is the broad ethical accountability a company has to the society in which it operates.  (It's also called social responsibility, corporate responsibility or CSR.)  A good corporate citizen maximizes the positive impact of its activities while minimizing the negative ones.  This includes paying attention to the following issues:

• environment,
• health and safety,
• human rights and human resources,
• community investment and development, and
• corporate governance and management practices.

A company can still practice good corporate citizenship while focusing on its primary mission:  to generate a profit while operating within the accepted legal, ethical and moral framework.