Business and Community

For businesses or organizations, the opportunity to support a variety of groups, programs or activities can often be overwhelming. Retail locations can sometimes have multiple contacts in a day for contributions, donations, or other similar requests. How to balance a desire to support everyone with the reality of limited resources can be an important process for business leaders.

While most business owners or leaders would love to support every worthy cause or event, resources are always limited and deciding on when and where to invest is an important part of an organization. Asking a few simple questions may help in the decision-making process and can also help individuals or organizations in identifying from whom to seek support.

1) Does this align with your business values? Investing in your organization’s common priorities is a straightforward way to communicate and support the issues important to you.

2) Does it support your employees or customers? Investing your resources in ways that support your employees or customers helps build and maintain trust and commitment and can have a long-term benefit for your organization.

3) Is there a potential ROI for business? Relationship building, marketing, or branding recognition or simply helping to build a community your business wants to be a part of can all create a tangible return on your investment that you can easily quantify.

There are many great causes and needs, and one of the benefits of being a business owner and leader is the opportunity to help. As one of my past community mentors Steve Sauder used to say, "Don't give until it hurts, give until it feels good!"