6 Ways Giving Back Is Good For Businesses

By Sebastian Troup


During the holidays and special events, we talk a lot about how the joy is in the giving of gifts, not the receiving. It's a lesson we teach our children, include in greeting cards, and hold as a cultural value. Companies can live out this same principle by giving back through corporate philanthropy programs.

In the same way that giving gifts is good for our personal wellbeing, corporate giving is good for business. Companies that engage in giving programs reap a wide variety of benefits leading to greater employee engagement, improved business performance and stronger relationships with their clients and customers. Here are six ways that giving back is good for business.

The connection between an employee and their job needs to be meaningful in order for the employee to truly invest themselves in their work. When employees don't have this connection, this shows in their level of effort and quality of output. As a manager, you know that when employees don't really care about their jobs, the company has a much harder time achieving success.

When a company engages in programs that give back, this can create a better emotional bond between the employees and the company and management. Philanthropy programs demonstrate that the company cares about more than simply making a profit, and this message makes employees feel good about their place of employment.

Employees often learn new skills when taking part in corporate philanthropy programs, and this certainly can benefit your company. Learning how to manage and organize people or resources is one example of a new skill that employees might gain. Creating and executing successful social media and marketing campaigns for the philanthropic cause also are skills that can benefit the company. Making connections with other businesses is yet another benefit, and chances are that your employees will be able to easily integrate these new skills within their day to day work.

Gaining new perspectives is also a benefit of corporate responsibility programs. When we give and volunteer, we learn more about the community, and this provides a better sense of how the company can be a part of that community. Philanthropy helps develop a kind of company-wide empathy, and you can discover how the products you create or the services you provide directly affect the community and how you can help strengthen the bond between the company and the community.

Outside of their corporate mission, all institutions should nurture a core set of values. The values inform the mission, guide decisions and help employees and community members connect emotionally with your company. Targeted giving and corporate philanthropy programs can help a company solidify its values by giving back to organizations that match those values. Ongoing giving not only strengthens these values as your involvement grows, it can eventually become a part of your daily operations.

New skills, community engagement, and a new perspective certainly can help a business succeed, making giving back worth the effort. It is also important to remember that giving back is a lot of fun, too. Companies that volunteer or donate to the community rarely have any regrets about it, and once they start, they generally find they enjoy it and only want to give more.




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