The Business of Doing Good

I’m unplugged for a few days to recharge with Dee after getting the book finished. Good Company: Making It, Keeping It, And Being It goes on sale on Monday, August 20th. I’ve asked a few trusted friends to guest post in my absence. Lynn Peisker is the Director of Client Services for IAG. She’s got an extensive background in the non-profit sector. She’s a brilliant communicator, and I’m not just saying that because she’s my sister and could tell you that I wet the bed until I was 13.

One of the best things I saw during my work with a large school district in East Central Illinois was a visit by some members of the Fighting Illini football team to an elementary school.  These great big guys sat on teeny-tiny chairs  and read stories to five year olds.  The players had their muscles squeezed, answered some silly questions, and generally brought bright football sunshine into the lives of these students who attend a school with one of the highest poverty rates in the district.  Why?  Because the University of Illinois Department of Intercollegiate Athletics routinely gets student athletes out into the community making a difference.  It’s a part of their plan.

Good businesses are also often in the business of doing good.  A 2010 workplace survey by Deloitte showed that more than 8 in 10 companies (84%) believe that volunteerism can help nonprofits accomplish long-term social goals, and are increasingly offering skills-based volunteer opportunities to employees.  But without a plan, many well-meaning businesses fall short of their own goals and desires when it comes to doing good.

If you connect charitable giving with your company’s identity (and we think you should), consider implementing a strategic plan for the good-doing efforts of your small business.

You can avoid being reduced to flipping a coin when the phone rings to offer a new sponsorship opportunity by following these simple steps:

1. Set a budget of both time and money. What’s your budgeted amount for giving back to your community?  Set a dollar amount or a percentage.  Build in margin for spontaneous giving.  Also you might consider the many benefits of giving your employees time off or other credit for volunteering or agree as a company to participate in a certain number of community events each quarter or year.
2. Decide ahead of time what causes, organizations or communities you will support.  Connect to a charity that connects to your business.  Do you own a local food store?  Consider getting behind the local food bank or backpack buddies program in your community like Pomegranate Market in Sioux Falls..  And it helps to connect to a charity that your employees support.  How do you know what that is?  Just ask them and they will tell you.  Or look at their shoes or t-shirt; they may already be telling you.
3. Set up a giving calendar.  Will you spread the good throughout the year, or focus it at one time if that will have the best impact? If you have this plan in place, it eliminates all those coin-flipping situations.
4. Involve your team. Empower decision making. Get the team involved by setting up a group volunteer project that everyone can do together.
5. As a successful business leader, put your skills to use on the Board of Directors of your favorite charity.  If you have expertise in the areas of finance, human resources, fund development, or marketing (and if you own a small business, you have all those, right?)  your time and talent would be a tremendous gift.
6. If all this seems like more than you want to take on, consider a combined charities campaign that will do all this for you.  An organization like United Way can set up a individual giving, corporate giving, volunteer opportunities, and even has programs that will help develop your younger team members into community leaders.

Those football players I mentioned earlier?  As almost always happens with volunteering, they reported that the greatest good that day was what the kids did for them.  Their volunteer time at the school showed them a world beyond the playing field, and helped them feel great about their contribution to the community.

Don’t you want the same for your team?  Make a plan today.