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.
The truth however is that the United States is comprised of small businesses and more than half of the nation's total employees work for these smaller operations. While these smaller businesses can't give as much as giant corporations can, it doesn't mean that their actions for their local communities can't be significant, especially on the long term. You will find that small businesses that get involved in giving back also benefit positively.
Giving Generates Positive 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.
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.
Employees Will Value Giving Back
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:
Create a special volunteer day where instead of reporting to the office, the employees spend the day working toward a specific charitable goal.
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.
This provides simple and intuitive access for any small business to set up a branded webpage to collect charitable donations via credit card.
Customers Also Appreciate These Efforts
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.
To directly involve your customers into your "giving back" program, consider some of these ways:
It should be a good idea for you to make room for donation jars in your store or any other form which may be simple yet could generate rapid response from customers along with the possibility of you maybe educating walk-in customers further by talking to them.
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.
Invite customers to join your employees at planned events. If there's plenty of work to do, why not bring in more hands to help out?
Choose a specific period like for example every Wednesdays evening when you can have a portion of every purchase made from your business be donated to a charitable cause. Make sure that your promotion is actively done in order for those customers who are one with your cause to plan their purchases correspondingly.
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.
The truth however is that the United States is comprised of small businesses and more than half of the nation's total employees work for these smaller operations. While these smaller businesses can't give as much as giant corporations can, it doesn't mean that their actions for their local communities can't be significant, especially on the long term. You will find that small businesses that get involved in giving back also benefit positively.
Giving Generates Positive 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.
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.
Employees Will Value Giving Back
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:
Create a special volunteer day where instead of reporting to the office, the employees spend the day working toward a specific charitable goal.
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.
This provides simple and intuitive access for any small business to set up a branded webpage to collect charitable donations via credit card.
Customers Also Appreciate These Efforts
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.
To directly involve your customers into your "giving back" program, consider some of these ways:
It should be a good idea for you to make room for donation jars in your store or any other form which may be simple yet could generate rapid response from customers along with the possibility of you maybe educating walk-in customers further by talking to them.
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.
Invite customers to join your employees at planned events. If there's plenty of work to do, why not bring in more hands to help out?
Choose a specific period like for example every Wednesdays evening when you can have a portion of every purchase made from your business be donated to a charitable cause. Make sure that your promotion is actively done in order for those customers who are one with your cause to plan their purchases correspondingly.
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 likes writing about philantrophic solutions for businesses and non profit organizations. To get more information about the competitive advantage of corporate philanthropy, or to know about setting up employee giving campaigns , please check out the Truist.com website today.
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