While it is imperative that your business focuses on profitability and growth, simply focusing only on the money should no longer be the only driving force behind your business model. Today, people expect that a company cares and has a heart, rather than just a bottom line. These people include representatives in the state, local and federal government, as well as your customer, the public at large, stockholders and even your employees.
Recently, David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, publicized the formation of a Social Stock Exchange. This organization helps people find companies to invest in that focus equally on social issues as well as generating income. A move such as this by one of the great economies of the world stands as a testament to the importance that social responsibility now plays in the corporate world.
So how can a company make a positive social impact while thriving financially? The answer comes down to creatively building and implementing a broad corporate social responsibility program that focuses on the doing of good, but does so in a strategic and efficient way.
Creative giving is certainly one solid option. Although any one of the following methods can produce excellent results on its own, a great CSR program will incorporate two, three, or more of these options in complementary ways:
Consider The Environment - Make an effort and commitment to becoming a sustainable, eco-friendly business. This means using sustainable materials, creating a recycling plan, improving energy efficiency and limiting the amount of pollution produced at your place of business.
Donations - This can be a very easy and effective strategy. Your company can commit an amount of monetary donations, services or products to help a cause.
Employee Volunteering - Create opportunities that allow employees to participate in volunteer activities, such as paid time off for their work or even organizing a charitable activity during work hours.
Employee Donations - Making it easy for employees to donate financially to various causes, either on a one-time basis, or on an ongoing basis via automatic payroll deductions.
Match Employee Gifts - When the company matches the monetary donations from employees, even to a set amount, this doubles the impact and inspires employees to give.
In addition to these creative giving suggestions, you need to think about strategic giving. We all want to do some good, but your program of corporate responsibility won't help anyone if runs counter to the goals and culture already established in your business model. You need to ensure that your giving program aligns with the mission and goals of your business in order for it to succeed.
You need to have a balanced and well-planned approach to a strategic charitable giving program, so ask yourself these types of questions:
Is a successful program addressing a particular cause viable financially?
Will our efforts make a large enough impact to substantiate the investment and effort?
How can we effectively mine business benefits out of charitable efforts? (Do not be ashamed to use your CSR program as a source of positive media, talent recruitment or savvy accounting.)
Is our business set up to fully help and support the charitable cause?
Is a philanthropic culture already in place or does that need to be further established?
Is the upper level of the management team clearly on board with these charitable goals?
Of course, even if each of these questions garners a positive result, you need to ensure that your CSR plan is run efficiently. The proper management of finances and employees is a huge priority. Every department of your business needs to be run efficiently and monitored and reviewed to ensure maximum growth. This is certainly true with corporate giving programs, and this process can be made far easier by enlisting the services of a partner company that specializes in the management of corporate social responsibility programs. As the manager of your company's CSR program, using a partner organization allows you to spend more time encouraging managers and employees to participate and also gives you some extra time for your own personal participation in charitable giving.
Recently, David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, publicized the formation of a Social Stock Exchange. This organization helps people find companies to invest in that focus equally on social issues as well as generating income. A move such as this by one of the great economies of the world stands as a testament to the importance that social responsibility now plays in the corporate world.
So how can a company make a positive social impact while thriving financially? The answer comes down to creatively building and implementing a broad corporate social responsibility program that focuses on the doing of good, but does so in a strategic and efficient way.
Creative giving is certainly one solid option. Although any one of the following methods can produce excellent results on its own, a great CSR program will incorporate two, three, or more of these options in complementary ways:
Consider The Environment - Make an effort and commitment to becoming a sustainable, eco-friendly business. This means using sustainable materials, creating a recycling plan, improving energy efficiency and limiting the amount of pollution produced at your place of business.
Donations - This can be a very easy and effective strategy. Your company can commit an amount of monetary donations, services or products to help a cause.
Employee Volunteering - Create opportunities that allow employees to participate in volunteer activities, such as paid time off for their work or even organizing a charitable activity during work hours.
Employee Donations - Making it easy for employees to donate financially to various causes, either on a one-time basis, or on an ongoing basis via automatic payroll deductions.
Match Employee Gifts - When the company matches the monetary donations from employees, even to a set amount, this doubles the impact and inspires employees to give.
In addition to these creative giving suggestions, you need to think about strategic giving. We all want to do some good, but your program of corporate responsibility won't help anyone if runs counter to the goals and culture already established in your business model. You need to ensure that your giving program aligns with the mission and goals of your business in order for it to succeed.
You need to have a balanced and well-planned approach to a strategic charitable giving program, so ask yourself these types of questions:
Is a successful program addressing a particular cause viable financially?
Will our efforts make a large enough impact to substantiate the investment and effort?
How can we effectively mine business benefits out of charitable efforts? (Do not be ashamed to use your CSR program as a source of positive media, talent recruitment or savvy accounting.)
Is our business set up to fully help and support the charitable cause?
Is a philanthropic culture already in place or does that need to be further established?
Is the upper level of the management team clearly on board with these charitable goals?
Of course, even if each of these questions garners a positive result, you need to ensure that your CSR plan is run efficiently. The proper management of finances and employees is a huge priority. Every department of your business needs to be run efficiently and monitored and reviewed to ensure maximum growth. This is certainly true with corporate giving programs, and this process can be made far easier by enlisting the services of a partner company that specializes in the management of corporate social responsibility programs. As the manager of your company's CSR program, using a partner organization allows you to spend more time encouraging managers and employees to participate and also gives you some extra time for your own personal participation in charitable giving.
About the Author:
Sebastian Troup likes blogging about philanthropic solutions for businesses and non profit organizations. For further information about the importance of business philanthropy, or to find some corporate giving programs, please go to the Truist website now.
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