How To Factor Philanthropic Efforts Into Your Business’s Finances
Guest Post By Sam Bowman
Your business can simultaneously help a nonprofit, develop ties within its community, and extend its market reach. However, corporate philanthropy requires careful planning and attention to detail. With the right approach, your business can factor philanthropic efforts into your finances — and help your company and the community as a whole.
Why It Pays to Prioritize Corporate Philanthropy
Corporate philanthropy can provide a competitive advantage. It can serve as a form of public relations or advertising and allow a business to showcase its brand within its community. Meanwhile, corporate philanthropy lets a company highlight its commitment to a cause. It can lead to high-profile sponsorships that help a business extend its reach, increase its earnings, and distinguish itself from rivals.
Thanks to corporate philanthropy, a business can improve employee morale as well. Giving workers opportunities to volunteer at a nonprofit can help a company engage with employees and keep them happy. These employees may be more prone than others to support their company in any way they can. The result: a business can use corporate philanthropy to help its employees feel and perform great.
How to Account for Corporate Philanthropy in Your business’s Finances
Corporate philanthropy can help your company stand out from its competitors. It does not require you to break your budget, either. Now, let’s look at five tips to help you make room for corporate philanthropy in your business’s finances.
1. Compensate Your Employees
Let your employees perform their everyday duties at a nonprofit and compensate them accordingly. This enables a nonprofit to add temporary help to perform tasks across a wide range of areas. For instance, you can have your accountants help a nonprofit get its finances in order. Or, you can offer human resources support, so a nonprofit can develop and implement effective HR policies.
By compensating employees who work with a nonprofit, you can help your workers do good deeds with little to no impact on your finances. Plus, you may be better equipped than ever before to encourage employees to commit time, energy, and resources to nonprofit work. The result: these employees will do their best to deliver outstanding results for a nonprofit.
2. Give Up Your Time
Set aside a work day for your employees to work at a nonprofit. Doing so enables your workers to commit their full attention to focus on what’s most important: helping a nonprofit.
Giving up time to help a nonprofit can help your business’s finances in several ways. First, your employees can take solace in the fact that they are contributing to a good cause. This can ultimately translate to superior productivity in the workplace going forward. Also, your employees can promote your company during their nonprofit work. They can show your community what your company is all about, without putting a dent in your marketing budget.
3. Offer Seasonal Help
Allow employees to help a nonprofit at busy times throughout the year. For example, you can offer marketing support to a nonprofit that wants to promote special events around the holidays. Furthermore, you can provide access to your accountants if a nonprofit needs assistance during tax season. Tax season is tough for everyone, but it can be confusing for nonprofits that run with skeleton crews, especially if they generate significant revenue.
The seasonal help a nonprofit needs varies based on the organization. As such, learn about different nonprofits in your community and find out if certain seasons are busier for them than others. Next, you can offer assistance to myriad nonprofits at different points during the year.
4. Donate Goods and Services
Offer goods to a nonprofit in lieu of money. Product samples and other goods may be readily available to your business. You can donate these goods to a nonprofit, so the organization and its stakeholders can use them. In addition, if the products have your business’s logo or name on them, they can help you promote your brand in your community.
Along with goods, you can donate various services to a nonprofit. A business’s expert web developers, for example, can help a nonprofit build, launch, and maintain a website. Provide services that a nonprofit can use, free of charge. This can help your business foster goodwill with a nonprofit. It can lay the groundwork for a long-lasting partnership with a nonprofit and its stakeholders, too.
5. Establish Partnerships
Seek out nonprofits in your community and partner with them. Over time, you can foster partnerships that help your business thrive.
As you develop nonprofit partnerships, continue to explore ways to grow these relationships. Your company can work with a nonprofit to find opportunities to spread the word about your respective goals and missions. That way, both organizations can get the most value out of these partnerships.
Use Corporate Philanthropy to Gain a Competitive Edge
Corporate philanthropy can benefit your business, employees, and community. With the right approach to corporate philanthropy, your business can empower its employees to support a nonprofit. Moreover, your philanthropic efforts can help your company grow.
Get started with corporate philanthropy and account for it as part of your business’s finances. Then, your company can use philanthropy to help a nonprofit, make a difference in its community, and gain a competitive advantage over its industry rivals.
