The benefits of corporate social responsibility strategies for small and medium-sized businesses
CSR strategies are not just for large corporations. In fact, when they plan a CSR strategy, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have some additional benefits to look forward to: happier employees, deeper community impact leading to valuable promotion of their business, and more sales as a result.
As a small or medium-sized business, you have likely been asked to support a nonprofit or charitable cause in your local community at some point. Some businesses welcome these opportunities, others feel inundated and overwhelmed by them. The difference is in whether or not the business has a vision for their corporate social responsibility (CSR), and a policy that outlines a brief, simple strategy for your charitable activities.
NGOs, charities, and community organizations have great needs, and often look to local small and medium-sized businesses to help them reach their goals. However, their requests for support, whether philanthropic or sponsorship oriented, can present a challenge to SMEs. Sometimes the request or benefits of supporting it are not very clear. Other times, the project isn’t engaging or valuable for the business. Many SMEs around the world feel like they have no choice or recourse for these requests, and the community asks just keep coming. It can be daunting to consider the options: do I have to support this? Will it negatively affect my business if I say no? Am I getting any value at all for my business when I say yes?
If some of these concerns resonate with you, have no fear: there is a way to make giving to charities and nonprofits into a worthwhile endeavour every time you do it. In fact, once you have a CSR strategy that aligns with your business purposes and goals, you may find that many consumers will buy from you instead of from your competitors. While your business may have no specific societal obligations, showing people that you care about more than just profit is a great way to strengthen your corporate brand. SMEs can use CSR to support their business growth by taking just a few small steps in the right direction.
Here’s how to get started:
Begin with a vision.
Start by composing a statement outlining your responsibilities towards your customers, employees, and local community. Of course, your primary responsibilities are to meet the needs of customers while making payroll and paying your bills and suppliers, but beyond these things, what do you care about? For example, are fair wages important to you? Do you support your employees in their own professional development? Do you look for ways to encourage their quality of life outside of work? Do you recycle, or source local or fair trade products? Do you consider your environmental footprint? Do you prioritize honesty and integrity when dealing with your customers? Even with limited resources, you can design a socially conscious statement that shows people that you care about more than just profit. This statement will be even stronger if it is related to your products and services – after all, your main focus is on staying in business.
Set your giving priorities.
This is where you get to decide on why you say yes to some things and decline to support others. Especially if your CSR vision statement is aligned with your products and services, this process will start to show how some community giving will bring you more business too. This is a great opportunity to engage your employees in more meaningful ways. Ask them for their feedback on your vision statement and for their input on how your business should go about supporting community projects in your stated area of interest. You might be amazed at the innovation that they bring to the table, and the insight that they may be able to provide surrounding how to track and measure your CSR activities.
Promote your strategy.
Mention and showcase your CSR initiatives in your storefront, newsletter, website, networking events, and anywhere else possible. You can manage your promotion and messaging to your customers, local nonprofit organizations, and greater community in-house, or use GiveRound to support this process for you. Regardless of how you do this, the more you educate your community on what your CSR priorities are, the more your community’s requests will align with your giving strategy. In short order, you may see that the requests you receive will begin to look a lot more like the things you are passionate about in the first place.
Do these things and you will be well on your way to having control over your reputation as a business with ethics and a solid community investment priority, but on your own terms. With a little effort in this area, you will likely find that you only need to give a little to get a lot more back in return.
