Why your Business Needs to Give Back

What goes around comes around, especially when it comes to doing good business and establishing good relationships.

Irrespective of the size of your business, there is an infinite way in which you as a business can give back to the community, charity organisations and even other businesses.

A business can ‘donate’ in many shapes and forms such as:

• Monetary donations
• Sponsorship
• Donation of services
• Participating in a charity event
• Promoting the organisation on your company social media page
• Volunteering

So aside from giving you, the business owner, that warm and fuzzy feeling that you’re contributing to the greater good, you will find that your business will inadvertently benefit from generosity.

How?

Let’s take a look at why giving back is good for business shall we?

Grows your network

Growing your business all comes down to meeting the right people and the right people hearing about your business.  What better way for your business to be recognised and introduced to a new network of people than by doing a good deed?  Having a common interest and passion about a particular cause or venture is the best foundation a business owner can hope for when you are seeking to build strong business relationships through networks. You will find that by contributing to a charity or organisation you will not only attract like-minded business contacts but like-minded clients as well.

Boosts morale within your business

Businesses rise and fall on teamwork and most of that can be attributed to staff morale and how loyal your employees feel towards the company and their boss. Instilling a sense of purpose and giving back to organisations is one of the most organic ways that you can boost the morale of your staff.  Signing your staff up for a charity fun run or golf day for example, will create a bond amongst those that participated and make them feel part of the bigger picture. If your staff has good morale, loyalty to the employer and feels part of a culture that is contributing to a worthy cause, this will transcend into increased productivity which is ultimately good for business.

Sponsorship is branding

Sponsoring an event or an organisation is beneficial to your business in many ways.  Sponsorship is the ultimate display of commitment to an organisation as you are ultimately aligning your business with this particular group and their cause.  Sponsorship is the simplest way to spell out in no uncertain terms what your business stands for and what values it believes are important.  This in turn creates a generic reach to the type of clients and business people that your brand would appeal to.  For example, Shared Marketing is a sponsor to Team T-Rex Triathlon Training due to the CEO’s affiliation with the team and passion for training. Other organisations the company has been involved with include the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, Immunisation Foundation of Australia in addition to low-key but still effective in-house fundraising for the RSPCA, Cancer Council and Bravehearts. All of which included the Shared Marketing team as a whole.

If your business is wanting to receive the benefits of giving back, don’t ever be deterred by the size of your capabilities to donate.  A simple shout-out on your business Facebook page for a charity event can be just as valuable to that organisation as a platinum sponsorship deal.