The aim of the present paper is to identify and comment on the existing relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the current economic crisis, by focusing on the experience of the Romanian companies. After briefly defining the concept of CSR, the article presents the above mentioned relationship from a triple perspective: the lack of ethics as a cause of the economic crisis, the threat of CSR in periods of crisis and the opportunity of CSR in periods of crisis, considering that the last perspective could be maximized if companies are going to approach CSR from a strategic point of view. Finally, the second part of the paper presents what Romanian companies really do, but, more important, what they should do in order to increase their effectiveness in terms of CSR implementation when social budgets seem to remain constant or even decrease.