I just ran across a question in LinkedIn posted by Tracy Chambers, a management consultant from Vancouver (http://www.linkedin.com/answers/management/corporate-governance/MGM_CGV/154082-17019495.) “Have you tied your corporate giving and volunteering program to your corporate strategy?” Rodger Keesee, President, Kinetix Technology Services, commented that ROI and volunteering were antonyms and that his company’s community involvement had no expectation of a return. Loretta Mullany, President, The Mullaney Group, felt her company did get a return in terms of employee skills and goodwill and name recognition for marketing purposes. “Frankly, we do this because we believe in it and because it is something we can do to give back to society. We don’t bother to formally measure ROI. I do sometimes have to make sure our volunteerism doesn’t hurt ROI by distracting from more profitable activities. It is a balancing act.”
My take is as follows and is what I commented to Tracy. In my work, I sometimes hear an ambivalence from companies about whether it is OK to expect some “return” from their community involvement or to tell others about what they are doing. If your community support/engagement comes from a place of authentic values and is not an attempt to whitewash other offenses, I think doing double duty – providing a benefit to both the business and nonprofit – is great and the only way to go. Having a “return” to your business is not sacreligious. I recently interviewed leaders from 50 companies of various sizes for a book I am writing for businesses on how to do more effective community involvement. They all felt their community involvement had a positive impact for the company – everything from “feeling good” to strengthening their business reputation, customer loyalty, increasing sales, employee skills and retention, and access to capital.
While I believe that doing something in the local community is usually better than doing nothing – just offering up your scarce resources for any social issue (whether cash or time or whatever else) on a first come first served basis can be a missed opportunity to synergize a greater impact in the community and to strengthen your company. My mantra is “one pack of hotdog buns to every nonprofit that asks has no real impact - for the community or the company.” Having a strategy about how to best use your company’s resources, skill sets and overall comparative advantage in service to the causes you choose to support with a link to business goals only makes sense to me and is the basis of my company, Business Nonprofit Connections, Inc.’s work with businesses of all sizes.
My message is similar with nonprofit clients. With nonprofits, I always emphasize the need to think about themselves as assets in the community and to think about engaging with businesses from a sense of win/win “partnerships” — not just the old school paradigm of checkbook philanthropy. The business also needs to get something out of the engagement or it is likely to be an unsustainable relationship. The nonprofit will find themselves beating the bushes for new donors next year for their silent auction or other resource development activities which is really time consuming. With some tweaks, both sides can and I think should benefit.
