There are two reasons to get your company involved in charitable activities: It’s good for the world and it’s good for business.
A survey from just two years ago shows that 88 percent of consumers want their favoured companies to help them make a difference.
Your business will receive several advantages in partnering with a charitable organization, including improving image, more productive employees, boosting your brand, building a network, and a healthier bottom line.
Improved image
The internet is a busy place, and any kind of traffic, especially positive comments, will improve your SEO and visibility in the online marketplace. Also, clients and community members are more likely to remember your business positively and spread the news to others.
Happier, More Productive Employees
Everyone wants to feel like their work makes a difference in the world. Getting your employees involved in the charitable process means that you’ll have a happier and more productive workforce that believes in your company’s mission and values.
Boost Your Branding
There’s no publicity quite like charity and philanthropy. Not only will donating money and/or time improve your standing in the local and business communities, but you’re likely to see new opportunities as a result.
Network, Network, Network
When clients see that a business cares about the world as well as their bottom line, they want to patronize that company. You’ll end up not only with more clients as a result of charity, but potentially more loyal customers that will spend more money patronizing your business.
More Money
For all you CEOs and CFOs out there wondering why you shouldn’t just spend that money on advertising, the bottom line is that donating to charity almost always brings in more profits than you lose.
There are several ways of going about your charitable work. It doesn’t always have to be a giant check at a fundraiser. There are so many ways to get involved in charitable work, whether it’s asking employees to volunteer, or donating a portion of a certain product’s profits.
How to Do It
Here are some other smart ideas from successful business-charity partnerships.
Partner with Similar Organizations
There are major benefits to joining nonprofit organizations or businesses with parallel goals, as this CEO learned firsthand.
Judd Schoenholtz, CEO of Open Listings, said this: “The mission of Open Listings is to make homeownership more affordable. Our service makes this possible by vastly reducing the real estate fees incurred when buying a home through a 50 percent commission refund. To date, we’ve saved California homebuyers nearly $5 million.
“As our company and team has grown, we’ve also begun to support local organizations working on affordability by donating resources and energy to groups that share our mission. One example is Abundant Housing LA, an organization “committed to advocating for more housing… lower rents and a more sustainable and prosperous region, where everyone has more choices of where to live and how to pursue their dreams.”
Donate Skills
This is an easy and wonderful way to connect with your local community, get some good press, and maybe grow your business.
Ask your managers and employees to donate some time to teaching skills. This could be at a high school or college, a free class at the library, or even an open house where you invite people to see your business and learn from your employees.
You and your employees have valuable knowledge that they can share. Why not spend one day a month sharing it with others?
Let Givers See The Impact
Many charities now understand the importance not only of transparency but creating systems that allow donors to see exactly where their money is going and what it’s doing.
If you offer a way for clients and donors to see the impact of their generosity, they’re more likely to come back and to spread the word to others about your business’ good deeds.
A great example of this is the Track Your Impact function at WE Charity, which founder Craig Kielburger said has been crucial for donor trust.
From Craig Kielburger: “The beauty of Track Your Impact is that it shows you what your purchase will do. And with sharable content that customers can take to social media. Shoppers buy the product, make an impact, meet the community affected, and share the story, like pictures of clean-water projects or facts about drought and small-hold farmers. The social media halo amplifies the brand and invites other consumers to join. And when consumers opt-in to receive information about their impacts, at the bottom of the message they see additional products and services that deliver more impacts to change the world. All of this amplifies the cause, inspiring others to shop with impact.”