Today I opened my annual greeting card that I received in the mail from the law offices of Holme, Roberts & Owen, LLP.   This year’s card was a 5 x 7 postcard sent in an envelope.  What I like about HRO’s card is that it features their logo, tagline, and lists their locations across the bottom - using a very minimalist approach to promoting their business.  The card instead is designed to highlight the company’s support of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and gives a brief two paragraph description of the nonprofit.  It then goes on to state,”Once again, in lieu of a traditional holiday greeting, HRO is very proud to support the Make-A-Wish Foundation on your behalf by adopting and granting the wish of a young girl.”  On the other side of the postcard is a photo and description of the girl they are supporting with details of her wish — to travel to Hawaii to see beaches, dolphins and volcanos.  The card itself has been designed to highlight the girl’s wish - barefeet in sand with a starfish on one side and a lei and sand along with her photo on the other side.  Very nicely done.  Maybe next year, your company could do something similar…??? 

For more information on Holme, Roberts & Owen’s community involvement, go to: http://www.hro.com/displayPage/472.

Everywhere I go this holiday season, I bump into yet another company doing great things for others because it is the Holiday Season.  I love seeing that!  And it gives me more great examples of unique ways to give back to share with my clients on both the business and nonprofit side.  If your company is one of these - I applaud your efforts. 

However, what I would request is that you also pick some other time(s) of the year to do another great effort like you do at the holidays…the need is ever present!  Nonprofits need your company’s engagement all year round with their clients (people are hungry, homeless, need education and social services 24/7) and to help build the reach and capacity of their organizations.  Make it a point this year to set up at least a handful of well-placed initiatives - maybe one a quarter?  The good feeling and business benefits are available at other times of the year, as well.

California Pizza Kitchen offers fundraisers for schools and 501(c)(3) charitable organizations. The CPK Manager will schedule the date for the event and give the nonprofit a flyer they can copy and distribute to everyone they know. On the day of the fundraiser, CPK will donate 20% of the sales from the event back to the organization. CPK has glossy card stock flyers they have available for customers announcing the “Philanthropizza” program. For more information, go to: http://www.cpk.com.

Does your company give gifts to your clients during the holiday season as a way to say thank you for their business? This year, why not do something different? Some ideas could include:

• Make a donation to a nonprofit in your client’s name.  For example, see Mercy Corps Gift Kits which include a children’s food kit for $20, a women’s small business development kit for $40, and many more.  Their website says: “What’s the best present you can give a poor family in need?  Hope.  Change the way you see gift giving. Mercy Kits are a convenient way for you to give a gift while helping people in need. Perfect for birthdays, weddings and more. And it’s easy to send your personalized gift announcement: by mail, by e-mail or by printing your own card.” (http://www.mercycorps.org/mercykits/?source=1018)
• Instead of a traditional gift like a calendar, pen and pencil set, logo mug, sausage and cheese basket, buy a product produced and sold by a local nonprofit - like a soup kit made by Denver’s Women’s Bean Project - a nonprofit business dedicated to helping women break the cycle of unemployment and poverty through on-the-job training and life skills coaching,(http://www.womensbeanproject.com) or an American Red Cross disaster kit (http://www.redcross.org/store). 
• Send a greeting card that highlights your holiday give back to a local nonprofit…plus your message of thanks.  No gift necessary - just a card which you’d probably send anyway!

What have you done that could inspire other companies? Please share!

This morning, a new color Allstate advertisement in the Denver Post caught my eye.  Not only was it colorful,  two-thirds bright green and one-third brown…there was a plastic snowman near the top under the headline “Help keep him from defrosting.”  The ad introduces Allstate’s new car insurance option, Allstate Green.  As an incentive to get your business, the ad offers discounted pricing, electronic statements instead of paper…AND they will make a $30 donation when you sign up to carbonfund.org.  The ad then goes on to educate consumers that $30 is “about how much it costs to offset your car’s emissions for the entire year.”  While I am loyal to my own insurance company, this ad made me stop and think about switching.  If I was in the market for a new policy, I would certainly give them a call.

This ad is a great example of a company addressing the current environmental concerns of consumers to stay competitive.  Not only is the product itself designed to address a social issue, Allstate also includes consumer education in their ad AND they are engaging in cause marketing, giving back $30 for every new policy opened.  They have selected to partner for this promotion with carbonfund.org, a nonprofit organization whose tag line is “Reduce what you can, Offset what you can’t” - a great choice for Allstate given their mission and business model.  It would be counterproductive for Allstate to encourage consumers to get rid of their automobiles so promoting carbon offsetting makes sense for them.

This promotion will not only raise dollars to help carbonfund.org in their work but also will raise awareness among consumers that there is something called carbon offsetting and it is relatively cheap.  Many consumers will be intrigued by and perhaps drawn to Allstate as they start becoming known as an insurance company that is doing something to address pollution and environmental degredation, even though one of their main business products relates to automobile use, a cause of global warming.  

For more information, go to: http://www.allstate.com/green

Community involvement is one of the five essential components of business social responsibility.  Community involvement (CI) refers to the myriad ways businesses can draw upon their unique expertise, resources, and connections to actively engage with community organizations to address local and global issues.  Most commonly, companies provide contributions of cash, in-kind, and people to support the work of nonprofit organizations.  However, more and more companies are now engaging with nonprofits through commerce. 

To be most effective, community involvement needs to be authentic, strategic and linked to a company’s specific business model, mission, and needs.  Community involvement initiatives, while providing benefit to a nonprofit, also need to be designed to help the company address such issues as reputation/visibility, customers, employees, and investors.  

There are more than one million nonprofits in the United States today - and all need business support.  Therefore, companies need to be very intentional about the causes and organizations with which they choose to get involved.   There may be some very worthy organizations that are best supported as part of your individual philanthropy but for a variety of reasons may not be an optimal choice from a business perspective.   I am not suggesting businesses should support causes they don’t really care about just to make a buck.  What I am suggesting is that “all win” choices are good.  If you would like your employees to be stronger as a team, choosing to support an organization that really needs volunteers for a project might be a wiser choice than one that only wants a silent auction gift certificate.  

Food for Thought

How have you selected which nonprofits are supported by your company?

What benefits did your support provide for the nonprofit?  For your company?

Are you familiar with the term corporate/business social responsibility (or CSR) and the business benefits with which it is associated? Many entrepreneurs and smaller businesses mistakenly believe it is only a concern for large, Fortune 500 companies. However, there is an increasing demand from consumers and investors that companies of all sizes engage in ethical business practices. Combined with the growing awareness that socially responsible businesses tend to be more successful over time, smaller companies also are paying closer attention to being more socially responsible as a proven way to improve their profitability and competitiveness in the market.

There are five main components of business social responsibility:

1. Business Philosophy and Design (includes business vision, mission, values, ethics, transparency and governance)

2. Workplace Policies and Practices (includes such topics as employee benefits, work schedules, training, promotion, remuneration, and issues of work/life of balance.)

3. Marketplace Practices (includes selling quality products and services, honest advertising, supply chain practices, customer and vendor relations)

4. Environmental Practices and Sustainability (includes green office practices and minimizing/eliminating negative environmental effects from the manufacture, use or disposal of products.)

5. Community Involvement