We often find ourselves generally thinking that when it comes to companies giving back to communities or being charitable, that they are large companies of multinational in scale with employees numbering to thousands at least and with millions of dollars to dispense of.
In reality, the vast majority of the businesses in the United States are small businesses, and they employ over 50% of the nation's workers. While smaller businesses may not be able to match the massive amounts donated by huge corporations that certainly doesn't mean they can't have a substantial impact on their local communities in the long run. There are also some very good side benefits for small businesses that engage in giving back.
Giving Back Is Good Publicity
Social media is an important way to spread the word about your charitable endeavors. Remember that even when you are devoted to sending out announcements on your local publications and TV stations for new products to launch or for pure promotions, they can't always be interested in covering all stories of this nature.
If the story to be covered however is good news like when your business gets involved in donating money, product or services and even spends time to volunteer for a cause, you can be sure that every local media entity will be out to cover it. These types of stories often have a higher level of human interest and impact than an article about your new product.
For example, in Utah there is a small tire business called Burt Brothers Tires. While they could pay for advertising and send out press releases about new products and services, it was their charitable giving that got them noticed in Forbes, a national publication. Burt Brothers Tires has been a big supporter of a local community project, Coats for Kids, and their hard work was noticed by Forbes and publicized. This positive publicity was free and just a happy side benefit of doing some good.
Employees Will Value Giving Back
It feels good to work for a company that cares. As a small business, most of your employees are likely from the same community, so many local causes will be close to their hearts. This makes giving back to the community a strong team-building and morale-boosting experience for everyone involved. You have many different options for helping your employees get involved in giving, such as:
Close your business for a day to organize a "Volunteer Day" where everyone reports to an organized volunteer event instead of work.
You can always solicit suggestions from employees on what causes they may be personally rooting for and eliminate one by one until you come up with a single cause which the majority prefer. People may be able to give financial donations through an online philanthropy platform like InstaGive, which is easy to set up.
Small businesses may find this simple yet shrewd in terms of presenting access for people interested to give to charity using their credit cards.
Customers Also Value Giving Back
If a small business learns to give back to its community, those who benefit from it are not only the employees of the business. You'll find customers considering this to be valuable as well in that they often buy from businesses who have the heart for its community. There is a positive publicity showcasing goodwill and this can definitely have an impact on customers whether current or prospective. This should not be the end of it though.
Here are few ways you can directly involve your customers in your giving program:
Set up a change jar for donations or another quick and simple giving resource for walk-in customers to take advantage of, and talk to them about it while they're there.
An InstaGive site is another good idea as you can utilize visual signage to promote it as well as via email and the use of social networking sites.
It should be a good idea to also invite customers along with employees working on a specific project. The extra help you will get should make the total work a lot less difficult to achieve.
There should be a specific period allotted - maybe from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday evenings, where a portion of the purchases made be set aside for the charity. An active promotion for this activity will ensure all believers of the cause to have their purchases coincide with the period set.
Now you know why even when you are merely small businesses you ought to consider giving back to the community through an organized charity or through volunteering wherein you may find opportunities for participation suitable for you. Go ahead and plan a sound and tactical program for giving back which you can start today.
In reality, the vast majority of the businesses in the United States are small businesses, and they employ over 50% of the nation's workers. While smaller businesses may not be able to match the massive amounts donated by huge corporations that certainly doesn't mean they can't have a substantial impact on their local communities in the long run. There are also some very good side benefits for small businesses that engage in giving back.
Giving Back Is Good Publicity
Social media is an important way to spread the word about your charitable endeavors. Remember that even when you are devoted to sending out announcements on your local publications and TV stations for new products to launch or for pure promotions, they can't always be interested in covering all stories of this nature.
If the story to be covered however is good news like when your business gets involved in donating money, product or services and even spends time to volunteer for a cause, you can be sure that every local media entity will be out to cover it. These types of stories often have a higher level of human interest and impact than an article about your new product.
For example, in Utah there is a small tire business called Burt Brothers Tires. While they could pay for advertising and send out press releases about new products and services, it was their charitable giving that got them noticed in Forbes, a national publication. Burt Brothers Tires has been a big supporter of a local community project, Coats for Kids, and their hard work was noticed by Forbes and publicized. This positive publicity was free and just a happy side benefit of doing some good.
Employees Will Value Giving Back
It feels good to work for a company that cares. As a small business, most of your employees are likely from the same community, so many local causes will be close to their hearts. This makes giving back to the community a strong team-building and morale-boosting experience for everyone involved. You have many different options for helping your employees get involved in giving, such as:
Close your business for a day to organize a "Volunteer Day" where everyone reports to an organized volunteer event instead of work.
You can always solicit suggestions from employees on what causes they may be personally rooting for and eliminate one by one until you come up with a single cause which the majority prefer. People may be able to give financial donations through an online philanthropy platform like InstaGive, which is easy to set up.
Small businesses may find this simple yet shrewd in terms of presenting access for people interested to give to charity using their credit cards.
Customers Also Value Giving Back
If a small business learns to give back to its community, those who benefit from it are not only the employees of the business. You'll find customers considering this to be valuable as well in that they often buy from businesses who have the heart for its community. There is a positive publicity showcasing goodwill and this can definitely have an impact on customers whether current or prospective. This should not be the end of it though.
Here are few ways you can directly involve your customers in your giving program:
Set up a change jar for donations or another quick and simple giving resource for walk-in customers to take advantage of, and talk to them about it while they're there.
An InstaGive site is another good idea as you can utilize visual signage to promote it as well as via email and the use of social networking sites.
It should be a good idea to also invite customers along with employees working on a specific project. The extra help you will get should make the total work a lot less difficult to achieve.
There should be a specific period allotted - maybe from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday evenings, where a portion of the purchases made be set aside for the charity. An active promotion for this activity will ensure all believers of the cause to have their purchases coincide with the period set.
Now you know why even when you are merely small businesses you ought to consider giving back to the community through an organized charity or through volunteering wherein you may find opportunities for participation suitable for you. Go ahead and plan a sound and tactical program for giving back which you can start today.
About the Author:
Sebastian Troup enjoys blogging about philantrophic solutions for businesses and non profit organizations. To get more info about the competitive advantage of corporate philanthropy, or to find about setting up employee giving campaigns , please visit the Truist.com site now.
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