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Cause marketing is one of the hottest topics in the corporate philanthropy field right now. To maximize the benefit of your corporate social responsibility initiatives, it is essential that you get the word out about what your company is doing. Cause marketing isn't just about building good PR for your business, it's also about taking advantage of all available opportunities to maximize the impact of your philanthropic initiatives. When more people know about what your company is doing, participation levels for your program will rise.
The first step on your journey of building up a corporate social responsibility program is creating a culture of giving within all levels of your company. This means that every employee, from the lowest to highest levels, needs to have some involvement in the program and needs to understand your philanthropic goals. Be sure your top tier executives are involved, and share with employees that their involvement in charitable programs helps the company creates stronger bonds with the local community and with customers, which benefits the corporation as a whole.
Writing a giant corporate check may seem like the easiest approach to philanthropy, but this is rarely the most effective long term strategy. Building a complete program around cash and product donations, employee giving, corporate gift matching, volunteering, and disaster response will give your business's philanthropic initiatives a more well-rounded foundation to thrive in the future. A holistic approach to philanthropy shows that your company is serious about giving back, which will have a greater impact than any one initiative.
Knowing your audience should be another huge component within your marketing plan. Cause marketing must reach out to many levels, including employees, senior executives, customers, shareholders and the local community. Each of these groups will need to be targeted in different ways in order to maximize success rates. The way you discuss charitable goals with the board of directors will be quite different from your approach when explaining these goals to shareholders or customers.
While getting your executives and employees excited about the program is essential, don't forget to enlist the support of your customer base. Use blogs and social media tools to promote your giving program as well as upcoming events sponsored by your company. Invite customers to join in and volunteer or donate and then highlight these donations of time or money through social media. This extends the reach and impact of your program, and these customers will provide you with a huge source of positive publicity, as they will also spread the word about your giving programs.
If you share any numbers highlighting the success of your corporate philanthropy program, make sure you are honest and transparent about where these numbers come from. Nothing can destroy credibility faster than a company getting caught twisting or manipulating numbers to take credit for things they had nothing to do with. Make sure you have a reliable CSR platform in place that tracks, analyzes, and reports on everything you are doing so you can be confident that your data is accurate.
The first step on your journey of building up a corporate social responsibility program is creating a culture of giving within all levels of your company. This means that every employee, from the lowest to highest levels, needs to have some involvement in the program and needs to understand your philanthropic goals. Be sure your top tier executives are involved, and share with employees that their involvement in charitable programs helps the company creates stronger bonds with the local community and with customers, which benefits the corporation as a whole.
Writing a giant corporate check may seem like the easiest approach to philanthropy, but this is rarely the most effective long term strategy. Building a complete program around cash and product donations, employee giving, corporate gift matching, volunteering, and disaster response will give your business's philanthropic initiatives a more well-rounded foundation to thrive in the future. A holistic approach to philanthropy shows that your company is serious about giving back, which will have a greater impact than any one initiative.
Knowing your audience should be another huge component within your marketing plan. Cause marketing must reach out to many levels, including employees, senior executives, customers, shareholders and the local community. Each of these groups will need to be targeted in different ways in order to maximize success rates. The way you discuss charitable goals with the board of directors will be quite different from your approach when explaining these goals to shareholders or customers.
While getting your executives and employees excited about the program is essential, don't forget to enlist the support of your customer base. Use blogs and social media tools to promote your giving program as well as upcoming events sponsored by your company. Invite customers to join in and volunteer or donate and then highlight these donations of time or money through social media. This extends the reach and impact of your program, and these customers will provide you with a huge source of positive publicity, as they will also spread the word about your giving programs.
If you share any numbers highlighting the success of your corporate philanthropy program, make sure you are honest and transparent about where these numbers come from. Nothing can destroy credibility faster than a company getting caught twisting or manipulating numbers to take credit for things they had nothing to do with. Make sure you have a reliable CSR platform in place that tracks, analyzes, and reports on everything you are doing so you can be confident that your data is accurate.
About the Author:
Sebastian Troup enjoys blogging about philantrophic solutions for businesses and non profit organizations. To get further examples of corporate social responsibility, or to find help setting up a corporate charity giving program, please visit the Truist.com website now.
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