Last Updated 7 months by Emily Standley-Allard
Are you a small business considering ways to give back to your community? Opportunities for businesses to give back is great for helping people in need. However, it can also benefit your business in numerous ways, such as boosting employee morale and workplace pride.
Many small businesses often avoid being philanthropic because they believe it involves tons of money or time and dedication. Yet, this is a common misconception that isn’t true.
There are plenty of nonprofits everywhere that are working to achieve a greater mission. But they also need your help to make a difference in the world. Therefore, there are plenty of ways businesses can give back to the community.
Here are the best opportunities businesses can use to give back:
1. Give back – Create Valued Internships
Offering internships is a great way to help build the future for the young and talented. Of course, the internship’s quality dictates how effective it can be. Unfortunately, many businesses don’t compensate interns for their time and often do undesirable work.
One way for your business to give back is by partnering with educational institutions. They can pair you with upcoming professionals to help you gain better insights into meeting your business goals.
By investing in this opportunity, you send the signal that you’re interested in more than what an internship has to offer your business. It shows that you care to benefit the workforce of tomorrow.
2. Give Back – Clean Up Your Community
Do you ever see people complaining about how your town or city looks? Maybe there’s trash lying in the streets, or you see some people haven’t mowed their lawns in a while.
Either way, your business and its staff could take the initiative to spruce up your community’s appearance tremendously. Consider asking your staff to take time to pick up the trash if they see any on the side of the road.
Or, you could ask to see if you can start a beach cleanup or a community garden.
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3. Give Back – Offer Pro Bono Services
Consider offering pro bono services to nonprofits in your area. Many nonprofits are understaffed and need various professional services. For instance, you may have a marketing team skilled in creating videos that capture attention and boosts brand awareness.
A nonprofit may not have the budget or staff knowledge to create marketing videos for its organization.
Therefore, you could explore a few local organizations you’d like to support and develop a team of employees interested in providing free help.
Ensure you include their skills and experience, their hours of availability and when they can offer their services.
Then, you can reach out to them, letting the nonprofits know they can request help on certain projects or events when needed.
4. Give Back – Donate Products
Another giving-back opportunity is donating some of your products to the local community.
If you sell products that can benefit the residents in your area, you can consider contributing as a way to support your neighbors.
Depending on your products, it could be a more cost-effective donation strategy. Instead of donating $1000 in cash, you could end up giving away tons of products that cost half the money.
5. Give Back – Donate Your Workspace or Equipment
Many businesses focus on donating time and money. However, if you’re not interested in this opportunity or don’t have the resources, you could consider donating your overhead.
It can be expensive to rent spaces or purchase office furnishings, but they’re essential to keeping the business running.
As a business owner, you could consider offering workspace and equipment whenever they’re not in use. Additionally, it can help to give away used items to your local charity once you don’t need them.
Look For Ways to Give Back
You don’t have to donate chunks of change or take away time from your business to give back to your community.
Although these are thoughtful gestures, it’s not always possible to keep giving away your precious resources. Instead, you may want to continue your social responsibility to make consistent efforts.
Use your time to find more meaningful ways to give back. When you invest memorably, you’re doing better for your community and brand over time.
Author Bio
Eleanor is the editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. She was the director at a marketing agency prior to becoming a freelance web designer. Eleanor lives in Philly with her husband and dog, Bear.
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This is a great way to give back to the community and provide a service that is needed.
It is important for businesses to interact with the community. They can do this by providing financial support to charitable organizations, donating products to charities, volunteering time to organizations, adopting a school or park, and more.
Thanks for sharing this amazing post.
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment!