WhatÆs In It For Them

What’s in it for Them?

Have you noticed how many of the really big businesses in every community always seem to also put a lot of effort into community service projects? If you look closely at the promotional material these companies put out, you would accept that the reason a business might decide to dedicated a few thousand or hundred thousands of dollars from their vast corporate coffers to help out the community because they “just want to give back to the great community we all live in.”

That sound pretty good to be sure. But it helps to dig a little deeper. We all know that the purpose of any business is single minded and that is to make money. They have an obligation to their stockholders or their owners to make as much of a profit as they can to return to those investors a good reward for the initial investment they put into the business.

This is not evil or imply that a business is somehow selfish. This is just the reason for being for a business and as long as they do business in a socially responsible way such as maintaining a safe working environment and paying a fair wage, we encourage business to follow their calling to make lots of money because when they do that, everybody wins.

So why do big businesses set aside a percentage of their funding to do community service projects? It’s a good question because perhaps you are a businessperson trying to decide if getting involved in community service is a good business decision. Well it turns out it makes very smart business to do something so “un-businesslike” as to do community service projects for the city in which you are based. Some of those reasons include…

. It’s free advertising. When a company jumps into a community service project, it is rarely done anonymously. A service project in the community is a great way to create lots of “feel good” advertising. This gets the company name out into the community, which builds what is called “good will”. Good will is actually an entry in the corporate ledger books as an asset that has monetary value to any company.

. It builds corporate morale. Employees like to work for companies that are good citizens of the community. Often times the company will sponsor a day where employees can go work on a community service project with a workday and get paid for it. This gives the employee a nice break and builds good feelings both in the community and in the employees, which improves productivity. Improved productivity improves profits.

. It builds trust. People will only do business with someone they like and trust. And people will go out of their way not to do business with someone they don’t like or trust. So trust between a company and the customer base is essential for strong sales and continuing to be a profitable business.

. It’s deductible. Just like individuals can write off money or goods we give to charities, companies can classify expenses used for community service in a way that benefits them at tax time. Sometimes companies need all the deductions they can get and charitable ones are not only good dedications but good use of funds to improve the corporate image.

. It’s a hedge against bad news. If a big company in your town has ever had to do layoffs, you know the bad press that can cause for that company. If the relationship of trust between the company and the population, particularly the pool of workers is damaged, building a workforce in good times becomes more difficult. By building good will in good times, that can offset bad news such as layoffs and actually turn a bad spell for the company into a source of pity and support from the community rather than a source of distrust.

This is not to say that companies don’t have their “hearts” in the right place when they do community service. But the benefits of pitching in to help the community in which they live are not only good citizenship, its good business.