A few years ago, I was interviewed by a celebrity entrepreneur on small business giving. During the interview, I was asked if businesses should share their giving with customers and the community or if they should keep it a secret. For many business owners like yourself, giving can be a very private issue. Perhaps it is rooted in humility or a deeply held personal philosophy. These are to be respected, but do not serve a greater good. Keeping your business giving a secret is a motivationally selfish and supports no one by doing it except your own personal interest.There are a few key reasons a business should contribute their giving message. If you understand the benefits of communicating your giving, you can quickly see the positive impact is has for you, your business, the cause, and your community. This is a big reason why I wrote my book, “Small Businesses Give Big: Why charitable giving is a great business strategy.” It is the idea that sharing giving stories inspires, motivates, and relates to others in any country and any language.
As a business owner, no matter how you give or what you give, not keeping your cause a secret can, in my opinion, have as much of an impact as the check you wrote or time you spent volunteering. The larger picture for sharing your giving is about creating awareness. The first step causes must take to increase their donor pool and prospects is not about asking for donations, rather it is about building awareness about the social issue they address, and how they are an agent of change in their community and the world.
There are three key reasons to reveal your business giving. They are:
1. Social Mission. By adding a social mission to your business and sharing it, you have just taken a pro-active initiative to support your business’s core values. Your social mission communicates the social issue you and your business stands for and is committed to helping solve. The social mission is cause-centric and communicates your humanitarianism. It is different from your regular business mission. However, it is aligned with it and works parallel to it.
2. Connection. Adding your social mission message to your business’s communication can expand the breadth of your outreach and touch the hearts and emotions of others. Today more than ever, customers and causes are seeking to connect with businesses that bring meaning and movement to social issues. By sharing your giving story, new levels of connection are created for you, your business, causes, and a community. These new connections can have long-term impact supporting your business and the causes you give to.
3. Awareness. At the grassroots level, both businesses and causes need to build awareness about what they do and the difference they make to improve lives. By creating awareness, both businesses and causes strive to increase either sales or donations and build their brand trust. Yes, even nonprofits strive to build their brand trust. So, by cementing your social mission-based marketing to your communication efforts, you have increased awareness about a cause to constituents and customers who otherwise may not have known about the specific charity. A new audience has been created through sharing your altruistic intentions in an authentic way.
Perhaps the greatest reason for not keeping your cause a secret is you have added significant social value to the world. So step out and be willing to share your business’s cause.
2010. Copyright. Maggie F. Keenan, Ed.D. All rights reserved.
