Businesses are always on the move, trying to find different methods and techniques to have a unique identity in the global marketplace. In their quest to be unique, they identify many opportunities, select appropriate ones, and act on them. One such method is to integrate philanthropy into the corporate culture, as it provides significant benefits to the community, employees, and the business.
On top of that, the business community is facing tremendous change due to the actions of the public, shareholders, and employees. According to a study by America’s Charities, 92% of the companies are aware that their customers want them to be socially responsible. The same study also shows that 87% of companies know that they should support any issues and causes that are important to their employees.
Companies realize that they will be able to grow and continue to be profitable if they integrate philanthropy into their work culture. If you are one of the people who are looking to do the same, then you have come to the right place. Here are a couple of strategies that you can use to integrate philanthropy into your corporate culture:
Hold friendly competitions
When you get your employees involved in working for charities and non-profits as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, they can do wonders. If you want to get better engagement and results from your employees, you need to make these programs friendly competitions. For example, you can have cook-offs, inter-department sports tournaments, clothing drives, and quizzes to donate goods, money, and time.
When you hold such competitions in your business, whether it is for a day or a couple of weeks, it will significantly impact the bond between your employees. They will work together, set and take responsibilities, and use various strategies to achieve their goals.
Company-wide community service days
The number of shifts or time that you set aside so that your employees volunteer to help out the locality is known as community service days. According to a survey done by CECP, 80% of the companies that held community service days found it to be extremely successful, out of all the other volunteer programs in the CSR strategy. When you hold community service days in your business, all your employees will focus on common causes.
Company-wide community service days are a great way to use all the talents of your employees. At the same time, it also allows the development of relationships between your employees.
Volunteering with the team
Another amazing way to integrate philanthropy into your corporate culture is to allow volunteering with the team as part of the CSR program. When you make this a reality, your employees will start coming up with projects to benefit the community. On top of that, you will also be able to keep track of the impact of the time invested by your employees has in the community.
According to The Millennial Impact Report, 65% of the millennials working in corporations will volunteer to see their co-workers getting involved.
How To Incorporate These Strategies Successfully?
The first step to incorporate these strategies successfully is to set targets or goals that your business needs to achieve over the course of the year. You need to find a donation or volunteering targets that go hand-in-hand with your business’s identity and strength. It isn’t always necessary that you have to donate money to the community. You can also donate the services and products offered by your business to the community.
Once you have set the philanthropic targets or goals for your business, you need to start delegating work to your employees. You can select an employee to form a group and lead your CSR programs. You can also a group of volunteers from your business to do the same.
Once you have the team to lead the CSR programs up and running, you need to start looking for projects that will match the strengths of your business. If you are finding it challenging to secure projects for your business, you can ask the community foundation to help you out. They will suggest projects that are beneficial to your business and the community.
Now that you have suitable projects for your CSR programs, you need to start working towards them. As it will be the first time you are implementing such projects in your business, you need to start small. Try engaging with a small group from the community initially. As the projects become successful, you can start engaging with larger groups from the community. Every year, you should carefully analyze these projects, collect data, and improve on them. If you want to incorporate philanthropy quickly, you should make it one of your business’s core values.
It would help if you used these strategies to integrate philanthropy into your corporate culture as soon as possible. Ensure that you include the entire business in this process and provide clear goals and targets. Soon, your business will be making a significant difference in the community, making everyone involved proud of themselves!