Whether you are a young company starting out, or if you are more established, ‘giving back’ is important. It can be hard to do this when you are bogged down by everyday business activities, but losing sight of a charitable goal can be detrimental. Modern customers like to know they are dealing with good, honest companies – ones that care and give back. Here, we look at just a few ways you can achieve this:
# 1 Sponsor Local Events
Smallbiztrend.com says that supporting a local event is a good way to involve yourself in the local community and get your business brand out there. One business owner on smallbiztrends said, “We usually sponsor the marketing for local charity events, and we get our team involved with supporting the organization of the event, as well as the online marketing initiatives. This is a good way to generate value for the charity organizations without having to ask your employees to put money on the line. By helping, they can help the organization generate its own money.” Look and see whether there are any half marathons in your local town which you could sponsor as a company, or maybe a fundraising initiative to help a local charity. Consider also supporting local schools, but try and find something which compliments your business ethos and not something completely random. It needs to be a natural match.
#2 Get Staff to Volunteer
Volunteering is a good way to get staff active in your community and as a business, you don’t need to provide any cash up front for this. Simply allow your staff to take half a day to volunteer for something like a community project.
#3 Look Further afield
Why not support a project happening in a third world country. We often forget how privileged we are in the UK, so by supporting a third world country, you can give a little back further afield. Take for instance Fruitful Office, who donate the fund required for the planting of one tree in Malawi for every fruit basket their customers purchase. Because they talk about this often and openly on their website, customers can be fully aware of what this company ethos is and will feel that their money is not only going towards their fruit basket, but also to a good cause.
#4 Provide work Experience Placements or Apprenticeships
Lots of young people and students are looking for work experience in many different industries. You can provide work experience placements for free. All you need to do is invest a little time in that person and it really helps their CV in the future. Who knows, they may end up working for you one day! You could also go into a local school or college on careers day and talk about your field of work. Again, all you need for this is time.
