Often, when discussing companies giving back to their communities or getting involved in philanthropy, the conversation tends to dwell on huge multinational corporations with thousands of employees and millions of dollars at their disposal.
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.
Charity Creates Positive Publicity
Using social media is an excellent way to spread the word about your business, its goals and new products and services. Of course, you can also send out press releases out to newspapers and TV stations, but these organizations cannot possibly cover all of the stories about the products and services newly offered by local businesses.
But when your small business is doing something of value for the community - whether that involves donating money, products, services, or your time as volunteers - it becomes a good news story that any local media outlet is going to be interested in.
To cite a particular example, Forbes.com recently covered a story on a small tire franchise in northern Utah because their cause has been focused on the local "Coats for Kids" community events annually. This small company, Burt Brothers Tires, received nationwide publicity simply because their charitable endeavors created a great human interest story. You could spend thousands of dollars in advertising and not get the benefit you would receive from this type of free publicity.
Your Employees Also Will Appreciate The Efforts
Working for a company that cares generates positivity. Given that your business is small-scale you are sure to employ people from the very community you are giving back to making them highly appreciate it. This kind of "giving back" to the community turns into a strong team-building activity as well as a morale-boosting one for every participant. You may encourage employees to participate through several different options like:
Close your business for a day to organize a "Volunteer Day" where everyone reports to an organized volunteer event instead of work.
Have a sit down session with employees soliciting their personal preferences for causes to support and vote on one which the whole group finds the best. Maybe a simple way of setting up an online philanthropy platform like InstaGive could entice employees to donate financially.
This could be a very minimal yet smart way to provide for people to access a branded webpage for the purpose of collecting donations using credit card.
Customers Also Value Giving Back
Remember that when a small business gives back to the community, the people benefiting are not the employees only. Even customers find this a worthwhile effort in that many locals may even decide to buy from you once they find you highly involved in helping the community. With the promotion of goodwill as positively publicized you can bet that existing and prospective customers are likely to be touched by any business no matter how small. Still, this should not be the end of it.
Let us look into some ways where customers may be enticed to get involved directly in your program:
Maybe you can put donation jars in your counter or you can think of any other simple yet quick ways for your walk-in customers to participate and talking to them about it while they are in your outlet ought to make them more aware.
You can also come up with an InstaGive site you can promote using visual signage or through email and social media as well.
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.
Charity Creates Positive Publicity
Using social media is an excellent way to spread the word about your business, its goals and new products and services. Of course, you can also send out press releases out to newspapers and TV stations, but these organizations cannot possibly cover all of the stories about the products and services newly offered by local businesses.
But when your small business is doing something of value for the community - whether that involves donating money, products, services, or your time as volunteers - it becomes a good news story that any local media outlet is going to be interested in.
To cite a particular example, Forbes.com recently covered a story on a small tire franchise in northern Utah because their cause has been focused on the local "Coats for Kids" community events annually. This small company, Burt Brothers Tires, received nationwide publicity simply because their charitable endeavors created a great human interest story. You could spend thousands of dollars in advertising and not get the benefit you would receive from this type of free publicity.
Your Employees Also Will Appreciate The Efforts
Working for a company that cares generates positivity. Given that your business is small-scale you are sure to employ people from the very community you are giving back to making them highly appreciate it. This kind of "giving back" to the community turns into a strong team-building activity as well as a morale-boosting one for every participant. You may encourage employees to participate through several different options like:
Close your business for a day to organize a "Volunteer Day" where everyone reports to an organized volunteer event instead of work.
Have a sit down session with employees soliciting their personal preferences for causes to support and vote on one which the whole group finds the best. Maybe a simple way of setting up an online philanthropy platform like InstaGive could entice employees to donate financially.
This could be a very minimal yet smart way to provide for people to access a branded webpage for the purpose of collecting donations using credit card.
Customers Also Value Giving Back
Remember that when a small business gives back to the community, the people benefiting are not the employees only. Even customers find this a worthwhile effort in that many locals may even decide to buy from you once they find you highly involved in helping the community. With the promotion of goodwill as positively publicized you can bet that existing and prospective customers are likely to be touched by any business no matter how small. Still, this should not be the end of it.
Let us look into some ways where customers may be enticed to get involved directly in your program:
Maybe you can put donation jars in your counter or you can think of any other simple yet quick ways for your walk-in customers to participate and talking to them about it while they are in your outlet ought to make them more aware.
You can also come up with an InstaGive site you can promote using visual signage or through email and social media as well.
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. For more info about the competitive advantage of corporate philanthropy, or to find about setting up employee giving campaigns , please visit the Truist.com website today.
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