Small Businesses Can Benefit From Strategic Philanthropy
By Christine Senack: Guest Columnist
Giving is a powerful business advantage. Large corporations are well aware of this and use it to their advantage. They hire staff to manage contributions, goodwill in their marketing plans, and create foundations. They encourage leadership to serve on boards of charities and employees to be involved in the community. Large companies invest their resources into philanthropy because they know it increases customer and employee loyalty.

With some planning and consideration, small businesses also can benefit from adopting giving nature. However, they must remember the key to successful corporate philanthropy: it is strategic.

Most businesses receive more requests from charities than they could possibly fund. Those serving a broad segment of the community, like a shopping mall, receive several hundred requests each month. Small businesses receive fewer requests, but the requests are more compelling as they come from friends, employees, and loyal customers. For the most part, requests for charitable gifts come from organizations serving important and legitimate needs in the community. These are factors that make it difficult for a company to develop a strategy for making donations.

There are some simple objectives that small businesses can use begin to set priorities in their community giving.

Impact. Whether your gift is $500 or $5000, ask the charity what your gift will accomplish in the community. While it is unreasonable to expect that a small donation will fully fund a program, is the impact of your gift meaningful to you as a business owner?

Appreciation. Gifts should be sincerely appreciated. If your business gift is not received enthusiastically, find a charity that will value it. In fairness to non-profit organizations, sometimes gifts offered do not meet their business needs. The number one need of every charity is for monetary donations. When a business offers in-kind donations of products or services, rather than turning down a kind-hearted donor, a charity may simply accept the gift not knowing how they will use it. Your charitable intentions will benefit the community and your business when they are matched with a non-profit organization able to best use what your business is able to donate.

Recognition. For a business, philanthropy should be a sound business decision, thus it is appropriate to ask what is offered in return for the investment into the community. While it is not reasonable to expect that small gifts receive broad recognition, it is appropriate to ask an organization how your business’ investment into the community will be announced. Smart-thinking businesses expect non-profit organizations to go beyond logos on event T-shirts and inclusion in program books; they are looking for unique ideas that bring customers to their doorstep and tie the charity’s mission to the products or services their business provides.

Christine Senack weekly columnist with the Toledo Free Press covering business philanthropy news. She also is a Toledo-based consultant helping businesses and non-profit groups work smarter together for the greater good. She can be contacted at christine@senackandassociates.com.