Small and medium-sized businesses are a core component of the community they serve. Big corporations have an arsenal up their sleeve to fulfill their corporate social responsibility and win some with tax benefits. However, as a small business owner, giving back to the community doesn’t just help you make more connections, but also helps you create a loyal clientele. Let’s check out a few ways your business can give back to the community.
Create meaningful internship programs
Internship programs are the answer to “How do I get experience as a fresher when every employer looks for an experienced candidate?”. However, most internship programs are infamous for paying pennies to the intern and don’t offer any meaningful experience. They do undesirable work and don’t get to learn on the job.
You can change that by partnering with local academic institutions. Craft meaningful opportunities for new interns and pay them a respectable wage. This doesn’t just help new interns. When you treat people right, you gain loyal employees who are motivated to excel at their jobs.
Volunteer drives
Most team-building exercises and events organized by HR are frowned upon. Falling back on your co-worker isn’t building trust, but wasting everyone’s time. Instead, switch those days with volunteer drives. Group volunteering activities allow you to help your local community and doubles as a team-building activity.
Choose a site that may need help. It may be helping out as volunteers at an orphanage, a homeless shelter, a local community kitchen, or just improving the public space by planting trees and making the local park pretty. Make sure that it’s a paid day off so that your workers can show their genuine effort and kindness to the local community while bonding with each other.
Offer your own services and products
When you offer your own services and products for free to the needy, it boosts your reputation as a business and helps you spread your brand name for free. This method of contribution also doubles as a marketing campaign. For instance, if you own a company that does landscaping work, look for households that haven’t had any landscaping work done for a long time due to financial or other such reasons. Offer them a free landscaping service and give coupons to neighbors. That way, the property you work on remains a testament to the quality of work you do and helps to bring your new clients. Similarly, if you have a bakery, offer muffins or savories to the local school kids and allows them to spread the good word to their parents.
Donate your space for a day
Even charity events can’t be organized on the street. A good sum of money needs to be set aside for renting out banquet halls, parks, or other such spaces. You can help shave off the overhead costs during those events by offering your space and equipment for the day.
Donating lumps of cash isn’t helping out anyone. It helps you dump your responsibility on another organization. Instead, these thoughtful ways of contributing to the community allow you to offer genuine help to people while improving your reputation as a brand.
Amilia Brown is a seasoned business writer & strategist who simplifies complex business concepts and turn them into engaging narratives. As a trusted business writer, she delivers actionable insights with precision.
