Category listing: Charity – Giving
We’ve written and spoken many times about charitable giving and how it intimately relates to the heart of a small business. Here are a few samples:
Also, as a Duct Tape Marketing authorized coach, I have had the privilege being asked to write for AMEX’s OPEN FORUM – here’s an article I shared in that venue on how your charitable giving strategy relates to your marketing.
We can help coach and train you all about marketing. We are confident that if you follow the best marketing principles (we like basing alot of our teaching on Duct Tape Marketing), you will see success. However, there’s more to it than just success. We believe strongly that as a small business, you have an obligation to steward the opportunity given to you. You have the opportunity make an impact in your local community and around the world. With your employees, you can take your successful marketing and be a blessing to those on your team who work day-in-and-day-out for the same vision. Perhaps you can serve together as a team and donate your time or resources to a charitable organization. If done with sincerity, few things can rally a team together as selflessly giving back (alot more effective than a ropes course!) Perhaps you want to succeed so you can enjoy the opportunity to impact more people in your community or around the world. Donate money. Give of your time. Whatever your charitable cause is, make sure you participate with authenticity. No one wants to join you in your fake philanthropy.
Donny and I pledged when we started that doing GREATER THINGS was important to our business. Although not easy to do (it’s an intentional decision), we give our time and resources to organizations making an impact here in North Fort Worth and around the world. We spend some of our vacation time as well doing just that.
In that light, Donny will be holding down the fort for the next 2 weeks as I travel back to Africa where my family once lived as missionaries. I look forward to the opportunity to revisit our work and see many old friends.
Work doesn’t stop on this end, though, so contact Donny if you need assistance or wish to talk about specific marketing projects.
-Randy
During the holidays, we are bombarded by dozens of pleas for charitable giving. Especially during a down economy, nonprofits and charitable causes are typically suffering from low response because consumers tend to give when they are not preoccupied with how to pay their mortgages.
But what if you are a small business owner? Whether it is the holidays or year round, does your small business give to charity?
I think we can assume that most people and small businesses give charitably out of genuine concern and care. People like to associate themselves with businesses that support meaningful projects. It’s makes us feel good. Thus, the marketing benefit is that this attaches a likability factor to your business. And, yes, consumers are looking for reasons to like you (because they typically don’t like your prices).
Big companies have long employed charitable giving into their strategy of getting customers to know, like and trust them. McDonald’s has a long history with Ronald McDonald House Charities and Subway is affiliated with the American Heart Association. As a father of an adopted daughter, I love Wendy’s because of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (OK, so it’s their Frosty, too).
How will your business share your success to impact your community and the world? Recognize the importance of rallying your team behind a passion greater than your organization itself. Differentiate your organization by focusing on selfless acts of community service.
To see most common ways to participate philanthropically, visit my article on this same subject at the AMEX Open Forum for Small Business.
-Randy
PLUS:
Fort Worth Star Telegram’s Andrea Ahles offers a recent companion piece on how shoppers can be charitable.
Todd Schnick of Intrepid Marketing also weighs in on how giving back to your community is good marketing!
As a member of the nationwide Duct Tape Marketing coaching network, I am privileged to have been invited by John Jantsch as a contributing blogger on the AMEX OPEN FORUM economy section.
Here’s my first published article on this site: Charitable Giving Offers Likability In Your Marketing Strategy (and I’ll shamelessly ask you to make some comments there PLEASE!)
According to a press release from American Express:
“OPEN Forum’s Economy section (is) a new platform for small business owners to connect virtually to discuss the current state of the economy and how it affects their businesses. The Economy section is a component of the newly refreshed OPENForum.com, an education and networking resource designed to provide small business owners with practical, actionable information from business experts, celebrity business owners and best-in-class bloggers and news outlets.“
Here’s a good roundup of press coverage of the Amex OPEN FORUM blog.
- Randy Vaughn – Fort Worth’s Only DUCT TAPE MARKETING Authorized Coach
