When you’re in charge of a highly successful company, there are certain responsibilities that come with the position. One of the most enjoyable responsibilities likely to be on your plate is determining your organization’s charitable and philanthropic work. Giving back to a charity organization like the Crewe Foundation can be extremely fulfilling and allows you to have a positive impact on your community. These organizations allow you and your business to become more efficient and impactful in philanthropic giving. Here are the top tips you need to know when setting up your business’ philanthropic plans.
Understand Your Obligation
While giving back may not be a legal requirement for a successful business or professional, you should consider it an ethical obligation. As a part of society that has created the atmosphere for your business to succeed, you should give back to others less fortunate within the community as a sign of your gratitude.
Know the Value of Good Behavior
While your own benefit should not be the primary motivator behind your charitable acts, that doesn’t mean you should pretend it doesn’t exist, either. Giving back to your community with philanthropic efforts can also provide a boost to your company. In addition to putting your company in front of potential customers who may not have known about you prior to your charity, it also engenders goodwill with those who already know you.
Inspire Your Employees
Maintaining high morale around the office is essential for a successful business, and having an active and admirable philanthropic arm is great for company morale. When an employer is responsible for good deeds, it allows the staff to take some pride in those actions as well. Everybody wants to feel like they are having a positive effect on the world, and that includes when it comes to who they work for.
Find a Cause You Believe In
It’s easy to keep your motivation and energy levels up for charitable work when you truly support the cause your efforts are helping. Take Dr. Ehsan Bayat, for example, who took his desire to help his fellow Afghanis and used it to build a broad portfolio of charitable work in healthcare and early education in Afghanistan. When you pair passion with resources you can generate outstanding results.
Look for Synergy
Philanthropic work is best when the business and charitable sides work together. When you find a cause that aligns with the goals and functions of your business it can create opportunities to provide benefits to the charity in a more efficient manner. If you are the CEO of a clothing manufacturer, for example, there is a natural partnership to be found in working with or establishing a charity that provides for the homeless. Although it is not necessary for there to be a strong link between your business and your charitable cause, it can add a little bit extra to your efforts.
Encourage Employee Participation
Getting your employees involved in your company’s philanthropic efforts is a winning decision on multiple levels. Not only does employee participation help to make your overall efforts more successful by increasing the number of people helping out, but it can also help to amplify the morale boost that your charity provides. By getting your staff involved they feel more connected to the charitable efforts and will take more joy in the successes that your charitable giving results in.
Find Community Volunteers
Your employees aren’t the only people who can help with your philanthropic work. If you’re sponsoring a charitable event, reaching out to the community is an excellent opportunity to forge bonds with the community while also getting the help you need to provide maximum benefit to the charity you are supporting. The more members of your community you get to take part in your endeavors, the more everybody can benefit from the resulting charitable work.
Seek Out Partners
Finding partners for your philanthropic work is an effective method of spreading the work around and improving the overall results of your initiative. Whether you’re partnering with a charity that is important to you or you seek out additional corporate partners to donate time and money to the effort, working with one or more partners allows you to significantly improve the overall production of your charity.
Host an Annual Event
Creating an annual event is a simple way to improve your charitable work’s efficacy. When people know that they can count on your event to arrive every year it allows you to steadily build interest and participation from year to year. Whether you’re sponsoring a fun run, hosting a toy drive or anything in between, by making your event something your staff and the local community can count on every year you greatly increase your ability to generate the philanthropic goals you are after.
Giving back to your community in the form of philanthropic behavior is a boon on so many levels. From how great it feels to the positive image it gives, both of which pale in comparison to the most important benefit in the form of all the good you can do. If you’ve been considering starting a new charitable initiative, there’s no time like the present!