Monday, October 21, 2013

Why Charitable Giving Is Important To Businesses

By Sebastian Troup


When you donate some money or some time to a local charity, such as food bank or homeless shelter, this is a great way to give back to your community and set an example of charity for others to follow. An individual donating time or money has a positive effect, but it is still a limited effect as one person can only do so much.

Take that one person and add hundreds or perhaps even thousands more helping out and donating to a well-designed corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, and you will see a tremendous impact. If that charitable program continues for weeks, months and years, the impact is even larger. Not only will the charity enjoy the benefits, but the company itself will experience many external and internal benefits as well.

One of the most immediate types of positive feedback that a company will see after establishing a program of corporate social responsibility is a boost in public relations. Media coverage of the event sponsored or supported by your company will definitely have a positive benefit, and this is exactly the type of publicity you want for your company. Your efforts will not go unnoticed because charities definitely publicize their efforts with various media outlets, and your company's efforts will be included in press releases, posters and other promotional materials.

While it has been said that there is no such thing as bad publicity, this is simply not true at all. A company with a positive brand image is much more likely to gain clients and customers that one with a poor image. After all, wouldn't you rather purchase products from a company that makes a concerted effort to improve the community or to help others? It just makes sense that a positive image attracts customers.

However, the benefits of a corporate charitable giving program are not limited just to external results. For example, these programs increase employee engagement. Recruiting top-performing employees and keeping them happy is a priority of all thriving corporations. Charitable giving improves employee engagement by boosting productivity, morale, ethical behavior, gratitude to the organization and pride in their work.

When a CSR program involves employees at every level, from the mail room workers to the highest level executives, this inspires people, and you generally see a huge improvement in teamwork. Because everyone feels important and involved, they work together on a higher level and work together to accomplish something of great importance. When you all take part in a charitable endeavor, the good feelings that arise from this activity will spread to all other areas of your business, so while you help others, you also help yourself.




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