Top reasons why an SME should donate to charity
As a business owner or manager, you likely understand that corporate responsibility is important in order to properly contribute to bettering the world. And it can help you to improve and maintain your reputation in the eyes of your consumers. There are plenty of crisis response teams in Southern Africa which you can opt to donate to, especially those who provide disaster medical operations services during times of need.
One way to prove to your customer that you care is if you donate to crisis response organisations. Do some research on how to help emergency response teams even if you have a small budget, as items such as food, water and other humanitarian aid items on a regular basis are much needed during these critical times. Donating to a charity is a smart business decision, especially for start-ups and SMEs who are needing to earn their place in the world of business, so keep reading to find out why else it’s so important.
You Can Build Your Corporate Identity
Anyone in senior management knows that having a corporate identity is key to improving your reputation in the eyes of your consumers. It gives your brand a voice and a mission, and you can build on this by donating to charities that offer support for disaster relief, women and children, and emergency relief situations.
And donating to charity can work in favour of any business in any industry. For example, you might be a small financial consulting firm that wants to reach your audience on a more in-depth level. If you decide to donate money or even goods to a charity, this will show your clients that you are interested in the world around you, showing another facet to your company to give you an edge over the competition.
It Provides A Platform For Publicity
As an SME, you likely need all of the (affordable) publicity you can get. And there is no better way to improve your public relations than creating social media posts about your charitable actions. You could create a Facebook post detailing how you have raised money for a local disaster relief charity, gaining new followers and even clients.
Another benefit of the PR that comes with charity donation is that it can help to raise awareness about the cause you are donating too. This can be extremely helpful in alleviating their problems and can help to raise further funds for their needs. Millennial consumers often will turn to social media to look at new companies they will be doing business with, and so showing these consumers that you help charitable organisations can work in your favour.
You Will Increase Employee Morale
Having happy employees means that they will likely be more productive, and donating to charity as a company can help to improve morale. If your employees are able to donate to a cause that they truly care about, such as helping victims of a natural disaster, they will feel content and happy, which will improve many things including their work ethic.
As an SME, having improved staff morale can work wonders for meeting deadlines and keeping clients happy. But better yet, your employees will feel as though you care about their feelings and they will go home feeling as if they’ve contributed to helping someone less fortunate than them. Additionally, employees respect companies that care for their community, meaning that they may appreciate the company culture more, and remain loyal to your company.
It Provides Networking Opportunities
In the world of business, having connections can be significantly helpful and donating to charity or going to a charity event can help to build these connections for you. For example, attending a B2B-tailored event hosted by a charity will allow you to meet other people in your industry who are like-minded and who share the same passions that you have.
Networking can also provide you with unique business partnerships, such as service providers who can help you to improve your offerings to clients. And they might decide to use your products or services in return, bringing in more business and helping to increase your revenue. You might also meet possible employees for projects in the future, so take along some business cards to any charity events.
You Will Be Helping Your Community
Donating to charity allows you to truly help your community, and this is arguably one of the major benefits of any donation form a business. If you are donating to a cause which is international, you are still providing meaningful contributions and so should also feel proud of donating both locally and internationally.
Your donations will be contributing to improving the lives of those who have been exposed to natural disasters, medical epidemics, war, famine, and other extreme events. It might seem small at first, simply sending money you have raised to a charity or donating clothes to a children’s shelter, but to the charity, it has a significant impact. Consumers will see you donating to charity and this will show them that you are helping to uplift the community rather than simply selling a product.
The content in this article was provided by Rogerwilco – a South African marketing agency based in Cape Town.