How does a growing, young company give back to community? Research has shown that there are several ways to support the community without blowing budget on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) kitty. If well implemented, it gives small companies a fair competitive environment.
It’s important to note that every responsible company should have a CSR programme. Most give back to the society through foundations, employee donations, sponsoring events and voluntarism. Large companies often pay staff to oversee this vital component.
In today’s environment of cut throat competition, everyone is busy chasing targets and handling the pressure at the workplace that we often forget that there is a world around us as well.
CSR therefore allows organizations to do their bit for the society, environment, customers or stakeholders such as shareholders. This makes it significant within the corporate world.
The golden rule dictates that we “Do onto others as you would have them do onto you,” and this extends to groups ,organizations and businesses.
This is how startups can give back to the community :
Train employees on ethical standards
Establish ethics policies and apply them at all levels of organization structures. Train employees on complying with the ethical standards.
Organize a volunteer days
It is important for corporate to contact the not-for-profit organisations and analyse the type of help they require and how possible it is to donate their time. This can be through organising Marathon races, serving food to the poor, visiting patients in hospital or even taking part in tree planting events.
Donate employee skills
Small companies can use employees’ skills to tackle societal problems /needs. For instance, if you run a human resource agency, consider working with small non-profit organizations to establish better hiring, retention and employee development strategies.
Donate blood to local organizations
Blood donations help save lives of many people. Data from Kenya National Blood Transfusion Service shows Kenya requires 400,000 units of plasma annually to be blood sufficient. Donating blood is free and does not consume time but has a great impact in improving the corporate’s image.
Giving of stuff
Most corporates and their employees have old and unwanted stuff but yet important to other people. Simple things like clothes, books, computers, tables, chairs and many more can be donated to NGOs, orphanages and other local organizations.
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