It’s good to give.
If your business wants to get more involved with charity work, we’ve listed some of the main benefits you can expect to reap when you start supporting local projects - as well as how to get started in the first place.
Ten Ways Supporting Charities Can Benefit Your Business
1. It gets your employees onboard
The UK is the most charitable nation in Europe with 33 per cent of people already doing voluntary work in their spare time. Working with charities therefore is more than likely going to be a big hit with your staff, and you should find that many of your employees are keen to get involved.
2. It humanises you
Why do businesses exist? Ask anyone on the street and they’ll tell you: to make money. Well, making a profit is certainly important. You wouldn’t exist without it. Yet increasingly, consumers want to connect with companies that support charities and their local communities. Charity work shows off a new side to your company - a human one.
3. It motivates your staff
If your staff are suffering from low morale or feel as if they are not spending enough time working together on something, charity work can go a long way to improve their wellbeing and productivity, and help them build stronger relationships too. Giving your employees something to ‘look forward to’ - such as a charity volunteer day - is a great way to keep them motivated and engaged.
4. It helps you make business connections
Do you know other businesses and organisations who operate in your sector? If not, charity work can help with that. You’ll probably find that supporting local charities in turn puts you in touch with other companies doing the same thing - a great opportunity for making new connections.
5. It makes you a community champion
Doing charity work improves your reputation in the eyes of customers. If they see you getting involved with local charitable events, they are more likely to form a positive opinion of your business, and increasingly see you as something quite different from a money-making machine.
6. It helps you train and develop staff
Charity projects can also improve the internal workings of an organisation. You might find that charity work alights a particular interest or highlights an employee’s skillset, whether that’s project management, motivational speaking or something else. Whatever it is, this provides you with an opportunity to invest in your staff and offer them more comprehensive training.
7. It helps you learn new things
Most businesses produce a set number of products, implementing the same processes each day to produce and manage them. While this is an effective business model, it’s not a conducive one for companies who want to learn new things. Charity work however can help. You might find yourself immersed in a whole new industry or called upon to demonstrate an entirely different skill - you’ll have to work fast but you could pick up some new ideas and innovative ways of thinking as a result.
8. It could improve employee retention
As well as motivating staff, charity work could keep them at your company for a long time. If your employees feel they are doing something important within their community, they will start to foster a deep connection with the employer who helped facilitate that. This in turn can greatly improve retention rates, helping you keep valuable staff on-board for longer.
9. It helps you define your mission statement
What do you want to achieve as a company? Working with charities could help you gain a greater understanding of what the answer to that question really is. Alongside making a profit and paying your staff, concepts such as helping the community and being socially responsible could start to form part of your company ethos.
10. You only live once
Life is not a dress rehearsal. You would surely rather look back on the lifetime of your company and be glad you tried to support worthy causes than reflect on opportunities missed. Doing charity work is fundamentally good - there’s no reason for you not to give it a go.
How To Identify Charities To Work With
So, you know the benefits associated with charity work. How to get started? Here are some pointers.
Work with charities you have an affinity with
Supporting charities that chime with your company in some way, or that you have an affinity with, is likely to lead to a successful outcome. Pick charities you are genuinely interested in and want to collaborate with. You’ll be invested, motivated and it’ll be a whole lot more enjoyable.
Appoint a charity management team
Charity work requires project management. Assign a small team of people to head up your company’s charitable work. They can be the eyes and ears of the project and the first point of contact for people who want to get involved and find out more.
Work with charities that will give you exposure
Connecting with charities that are well-known or have large membership bases is a smart move - it’s likely to get your name in front of more people and allow you to spread the word about what your business does
Work with charities that have local bases
It’s important to work with a charity that you can easily get to. If you want to work with a charity that’s based hundreds of miles away, it’s probably not going to work. Focusing on local projects is a great way to start - it’s much easier to keep in touch with them and attend their events.
