Charity might begin at home but work gives it a big boost.

If you like to get involved, there are lots of ways your business can make a difference – and benefit both the charity you support and your own business brand.

1. Choose Your Charity Wisely

From a business branding perspective, it’s important to be authentic. Choosing a charity that supports a cause that an employee or key team member has an experience with is a good start. By choosing a charity you are genuinely connected to, you ensure your giving aligns with your marketing message and makes sense to everyone involved.

2. Time Is Money Too

Supporting a charity is not just about giving money. Giving time can be just as valuable. Setting aside one day a month for your team to get involved in donating their time to a great cause can be a fantastic way to bond and unite as a workforce, while also supporting something that matters.

3. Joint Fundraising

Whether you’re selling chocolates, doing a walk-a- thon, or shaving your heads for sponsorship dollars, uniting as a team – with your employees, colleagues and even clients – can be a powerful way to get involved through your business. Set a goal and make it clear to everyone but make sure you are realistic and have strategies to make it work so everyone can feel good by achieving – or exceeding – what they all set out to.

4. Build an Ongoing Relationship

Choosing a local charity that aligns with your brand values and then supporting it on an ongoing basis can be a fantastic way to unite your team towards a common goal. Teamwork is a fantastic unifier and achieving a charity goal you set out to do have flow-on effects for office morale, as well as the charity you are all supporting. Publicly aligning yourself with one charity sends a clear message about who you are to your clients too – just be sure you understand all the important info about the charity, including the percentage of money raised that is actually spent on the cause it supports, and the precise nature of the work that is done.

5. Make Your Business Stand Out

Supporting a charity can be a positive business differentiator. Again, the success of this comes down to your research – if you align your business brand with a charity, make sure you apply due diligence and know as much about that charity and how it spends its money as possible. The last thing you want to do is stand out for the wrong reasons when you were simply trying to do some good in the local community.

6. Keep Communicating

If your business is a regular supporter of a specific charity, it’s important you stay connected – and keep communications open and honest. Make it clear how you are supporting them and don’t be afraid to shout it from the rooftops. By attracting media publicity for the work your business does for the charity, you are not only helping boost the recognition of your business brand and community values, you are also publicising the plight of the charity, which may attract other donations for them. Consider a link from your website to theirs, or some visible measurement of how much help/money you have donated that week/month/financial year.

7. Feel Good

It’s true. Helping others makes you feel good. Whether you are donating money raised or time spent, knowing you are making a difference in the lives of other people does make you feel good. Enjoy!

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