As a business leader, it’s important to know everything you can about your company’s culture. This understanding goes beyond values and norms: It’s the way you do business. This is where corporate giving comes into play.
What is Corporate Giving?
At its core, corporate giving is about balancing competition with collaboration. It’s important to know how to leverage your resources for maximum impact. There are many different aspects that make up a company’s culture, but corporate giving is one of the most important.
Defining your goals will help you determine what type of giving you want to do with your resources. Is it philanthropic? Do you just want employees to volunteer their time? You can focus on frontline services or a specific cause area, or even try something new. Whatever works best for your company, you should look into it.
Myths About Corporate Giving
For all of corporate giving’s virtues, there are many misconceptions surrounding it. For one, corporate giving is not necessarily tax-deductible. A tax write-off for charitable contributions is not an automatic process. You must have the right to deduct before taking any deductions.
Another myth is that corporate giving is all about money; in actuality, it’s also about building your brand and attracting customers. You want to find the balance of how much you spend on charity versus marketing and promotion for your company.
How To Become a Corporate Giving Leader
The first step to becoming a corporate giving leader is to create an effective strategy. The strategy will reflect the company’s culture and values, so it must be authentic and true to who you are.
Once your strategy is in place, you’ll need to implement a plan of action that is practical and measurable. A shared understanding of what success looks like will give everyone the confidence they need.
Last but not least, there should be a clear line of communication between all stakeholders. Without this collaboration, there would be no team working together toward success.
Tips for Going Beyond the “One-Off” Charity
You have the power to influence your company’s culture through charitable giving, but it can be difficult to know where to start and what is best for your team. These tips will help you do more than just be “one-off” and maximize your impact as a corporate giving leader:
- Get involved early on so you are prepared to make an impact when the time comes.
- Understand what drives your team members.
- Know how philanthropy fits into your work environment.
- Look to other corporate giving leaders, such as consultant David Johnson Cane Bay Partners, for inspiration.
Give-and-Take
With corporate giving, you can get involved in your community and make your work more meaningful. You and your team members should feel more inspired to accomplish the things you need to accomplish. Additionally, you should be able to increase your global visibility through your contributions to the public. A stronger presence will help like-minded people find out about your company and what it can do for them.
