This article will provide you with information about Why Should Businesses Get Involved in the Community

There are various businesses that look at it as their responsibility to give back to the community in which they function. These could be a local business, a company, a for-profit organisation, a corporation, or any other business entity. They encourage businesses by using the various software and platforms to set up a business profile through which they will participate in community giving.  With this profile, they encourage their patrons and employees to get connected with charitable causes in the community by giving. Read more to know why should businesses get involved in the community.

Such businesses seek to empower and inspire their stakeholders, vendors, customers, employees, affiliates, and others associated with them or who come in contact with them to participate in such causes and give back to them that appear to resonate with them and are meaning full in their eyes. In this way, people will be exposed to several new causes and organizations where their contribution will be welcome and make a difference to the cause and when they give. At times, such giving also leads to healthy competition where one tries to better the contribution of the other, and this leads to huge gains for the cause to which they are contributing.

Why Should Businesses Get Involved With The Community?

Besides being of help to the community, there are various reasons why businesses must get involved with the community.  Here is a short list of six of them.

• Build a good image and earn a good reputation

It is easy for businesses to earn an extremely good image and reputation through being involved with the community and providing it benefits. The reputation of a business does not depend on how successful a business is in terms of its profits and net worth.  It greatly depends on how socially aware and responsible the business is and how it interacts with the community in which it is based.  The business’s actions towards the community will be key deciding factors in building its reputation and image as a good/ bad one. 

• Be different from competition

When a business gets involved with the community, be it through fundraising or through volunteer work, the business gets to play a leading role in the community.  Such businesses get an edge over their competitors who have as yet not incorporated community-giving practices.

• Gain employee satisfaction and higher involvement at work

When a business gives back to the community and has a good reputation, the employees of the company are also looked upon as being exactly like the company.  They get the same respect and get further involved with the community.  When people from outside see that the employees of the company are a happy lot, then they too want to be employed by the business.  In effect, it brings down the attrition rate and also pulls prospective employees to the business.  The business now has a huge choice from which to pick the best talent. 

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• Gain the loyalty of clients

A study conducted by the Nielson Group has shown that as high as 55% consumers are ready to pay a higher price for a service or product if the company that they are buying from is seen as being environmentally or socially responsible. 

Now days, people are growing more and more concerned about the attitude of businesses towards society.   People want to associate with such businesses only, which display socially responsible behavior in their business practices.  With information travelling quickly on the Internet through blogs, social media, and such, businesses need to be on their toes and be involved with the community in a positive way.  Is is easy for people to stay away from a business that is not looking at giving to the community or not being socially responsible.

• Become attractive for new investors

A business that is behaving responsibly in a community becomes visible to many eyes.  This visibility will pull investors towards the company since they would like to be associated with such a business that already has a great reputation and is well accepted by the community. 

• Enjoy a feeling of satisfaction

The feeling of giving to a community and creating an actual difference to the lives of other people through the giving gives a satisfaction that no other act can provide. So, it is key for businesses to search out such causes in the community that resonate with them so that they remain motivated to stay with the cause for a long period of time, creating a long-term relationship. 

Ideas for a business for involvement with the community

The following list is of a few community involvement ideas for businesses to show that they care.

• Volunteering:

  Make volunteering with the community a company culture.  Everyone from owners, managers, to every employee must make time for volunteering. The business can come up with some number of specific volunteer initiatives for employees to pick from, or give the employees a free hand to pick where they would like to volunteer

• Pick a sports team to sponsor:

  Generally, a community will have several sports teams, whether adult or youth.  Sponsoring a team will give the business the opportunity to gain easy publicity when the business’s logo appears on the team’s uniform.  Another positive of sponsoring a sports team is that if there is not enough time to volunteer, the sponsorship will still be a responsible step to take

• Provide event sponsorship:

   When the community is putting up an event, the business and volunteer sponsor the event, fully or partially.  Employees should be encouraged to attend the event to make it clear that the business cares. The employees could go wearing clothes with the name/logo of the business.

• Conduct a charity drive:

   With a charity drive, a business can give to the community without the involvement of a significant amount of money or time. Employees can be asked to make donations of clothes, books, canned foods, grains, pulses, and other items that the people in the community will use. These items can be collected and delivered to a local organisation that will know a good use for them

• Share services and knowledge:

  Several people in the community will benefit tremendously from your business’s and its employees’ expertise. To take an example, if a not-for-profit organisation needs fliers printed, then a printing business could volunteer to publish them for free of cost

• Take up the option of donor matching:

   A business that can afford it could go in for donor matching. It implies that the business will match the donation made by its employee for causes.  The business could also double or triple the amount.  The business will have to ensure that the employees are aware that such a scheme exists in the organisation. Also, it should be available to all employees to see what the monitory contribution of the business has been. 

Conclusion:

 What is required is to be socially responsible and to want to give to the community where the business functions. By being committed and coming up with creative ideas for fundraising, a business can do a tremendous amount of fundraising.