Doing well and doing good are not different ideas
Doing Well by Doing Good
Giving Back is Part of the Strategy
The challenge for many companies is how to integrate social business initiatives (including CSR, CI and sustainability initiatives) into their revenue streams, customer-facing transactions, internal and employee processes and supplier interactions. For most companies, a workplace or consumer-based Giving Program is an essential element of a broader Responsible Business Strategy. Getting customers and employees involved in your business through an embedded giving program can build loyalty, positive brand perception, and give them the chance to "do good" and feel good about themselves while doing business with you.
And there is no doubt that you can do well in your business while "doing good." As government spending shifts to healthcare and fundraising costs remain a challenge, fewer and fewer of the 1.5 million non-profits in North America will be equipped to survive in a donor-driven environment. As a society, we need to add new donors, and use technology and other methods to access and aggregate the grassroots "power of many".
There are Challenges...
Many responsible business initiatives are not measured or reported upon, which affects the longevity, investment and credibility of the programs (and therefore their business impact). Where corporate or workplace giving programs exist, many causes chosen by companies or their executives do not resonate with the customers, employees or other stakeholders involved with the company, or with the companies' business strategies. Many of these are manual, labour-intensive programs with minimal flexibility, so if they somehow don't work as originally conceived, they are either scrapped or paid lip-service to.
People really do want to give back, and if it were made easier, they would do it in droves.
See Facts Relating to Corporate Giving
Traditionally, charities have relied on a small support base to survive. The top one-quarter of donors provided 82% of the value of all donations and the top 10% accounted for 62% of all donations. (Source: Caring Canadians, Involved Canadians: Highlights from the 2004 Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, Statistics Canada, June 2006).
Individuals are a huge part of the philanthropic puzzle. Of the $300 Billion given to non-profits in the U.S. in 2007, only 5.1% came from corporations and their Foundations (Analysis conducted by "Giving USA", 2007). Canada's percentages are comparable.
Online is the place people want to be: Although still less than 3% of total giving, online giving is growing exponentially; from $250 million in 2000 to more than $6.9 Billion in 2006 (e-Philanthropy Report)
Online donors contribute more: They give in total (both online and offline) more than 50% more than donors who do not give online (Kinterra/Luth Nonprofit Trend Report).
Easy = Effective: In the January 2008 Keystone Report of online philanthropy markets, 92% of respondents cited convenience as the reason they choose to give online.
Matching programs increase total donations: The existence of a matching gift increases total donation response rates by more than 20% (Analysis conducted by Giving USA, 2007)
Individual donors, including your customers and employees, are looking for convenient, easy-to-use ways to give that empower choice so they can support the causes they care about. You or other sponsors can influence that choice by using additional funds to create matching opportunities with those groups, on whatever terms you choose. Building the opportunity to give back into your business processes can help them do this and build stronger relationships with your company.
Benevity offers a secure, low risk solution that can be easily implemented and customized to help your company deliver an effective social giving program. Use Benevity and your social business strategy to bring the giving opportunities to where they already are: your site or network.