Abstract

Abstract:

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) research often emphasizes CSR practices, organizational communication, and perceptions among publics. Scholars believe sport offers unique opportunities to create social impacts (Godfrey, 2009). However, sport CSR scholarship generally fails to address the quality of relationships between partner organizations. Ethic of care provides a framework for understanding the benefits of working with professional sport organizations and the resultant quality of those CSR relationships compared to other corporate partners. To address scholarly gaps, 29 depth interviews were conducted with nonprofit practitioners whose nonprofits received support from professional sport organizations. Inductive coding revealed distinct types of benefits (audience reach and credibility) and differences compared to other corporate partners (organizational access and cause-fit) that diverge from and add to existing sport CSR literature. Findings suggest that embracing caring practices can help sport organizations leverage their positions in local communities and help differentiate them as more desirable corporate partners.

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