5 reasons why supporting a charity improves your business

In the run up to The Big Sleep Out, Hannah of Hoyland Marketing explains why helping a good cause also helps your business.

How to choose which charity to support
There are many other benefits to supporting a charity than just the commercial ones. As I was filling out my Just Giving page for The Big Sleep Out, my mind turned to what my clients would get out of charity support. These are my top benefits:

1 Employee Engagement
Including your team in choosing the charity or charities you support each year is a valuable process when it comes to employee engagement. Asking employees to champion a cause that they believe in gives them a chance to share values very personal to them. Supporting their causes increases their feeling of being supported and valued outside of work.

2 Increase Teamwork
Some clients create cross functional committees of volunteers who take the lead on the organisation and running of the events. These types of teams are hugely effective in breaking down the traditional department silos and encourage teamwork across the whole company. The teamwork that happens in these committees continues during business as usual increasing communication between all departments.

3 Employee Development
Another benefit of creating cross functional teams of volunteers is that employees often develop new skills in the process. If the team is responsible for every stage from choosing the charity to planning, running and taking part in the events they could all learn something new.

4 Marketing Content
I am bound to mention this one! It’s true, promoting events run by your chosen charity and organising your own in support of them, does give you something else to talk about.

5 Customer Engagement
Not everyone is an expert in communicating what they stand for through brand and products. Choosing a charity with similar values to your own does this for you because customers will be able to connect to you on an emotional level. This increases the level of authenticity that customers feel about you.

So, involve everyone in the choice. It’s a matter of social responsibility to support good causes and it increases the strength of your team and their feelings of wellbeing at work.

On May 11th, I’m taking part in Trinity’s ‘The Big Sleep Out’. Please help me to help them continue to provide vital and practical support to over 600 people a year who experience homelessness or vulnerability. Click here to sponsor me. Thank you.