Being a good business citizen: How you can support a cause through corporate responsibility
As the past months have unraveled, you’ve probably been faced with many uncomfortable truths you can’t quite ignore.
Especially as a small business owner (and a human, really), the social and economic events all over the country and the world, you must be wondering what, if anything, you can do on your end to help the people in the front lines of the fight for what’s right.
What to do to support your cause: 5 steps to corporate responsibility
Find a cause that speaks to your values
Or the organizations to support, if your cause is already clear.
Research the key players involved, find grassroots organizations, and think small and local so your contribution can have as big an impact as possible.
While an international organization like UNICEF may be more trustworthy or well known, keep in mind that there are thousands of huge businesses and governments already standing behind it.
When you choose a small, independent nonprofit, your funds are directly impacting the population you’re looking to support.
Research the cause, its real needs, and how to best serve them
Once you’ve got your eye on the cause you want to support, find the people addressing the cause, and what the best ways to support them are.
Similar to the previous point, it’s key that, once you’ve decided to help, your contribution helps address real needs within a cause.
For example, a lot of people support homeless shelters, but their needs are varied. Many shelters, especially those catering to women, specifically communicate that they need more personal hygiene products.
Animal shelters often request blankets, towels, and similar items - many companies donate grooming products to these organizations, so you’d be better off volunteering for a few hours to help supply much-needed labor.
In terms of social justice, advocates and activists are vocal about the cause’s needs. So your best bet is to listen to them.
Figure out what you can give - Hint: It doesn’t have to be money
Whether you choose to donate money, time, or even your skills will be entirely up to your bandwidth and how involved you want to be in the cause.
A few questions worth considering are:
What organizations are leading the fight in the cause you support?
Who would benefit from your support?
How can you ensure that your donation (whether it's time, money, sharing resources, or any other effort) gets to the right group?
Some organizations pledge a percentage of their revenue, the proceeds from a specific product, or even a percentage of the owner’s pay to the cause they support.
Many companies, especially product-based businesses, make this known to encourage sales. A good example of this is MAC’s VIVA GLAM line that supports AIDS relief efforts: Viva Glam 25 - Timeline.
Get involved and actively support your cause
It’s easy to feel intimidated or paralyzed in the world of activism. You may feel like there’s too much to be done, or your contribution may be too small. Or maybe you just don’t know where to start to change anything. But all the research in the world won’t lead anywhere if you don’t actually hit DONATE once you have that urge to do something.
How you choose to handle your values and the organizations you support is up to you. It’s your choice to be vocal about your causes and your activism, to keep them low-key, to involve your business, or to act as an individual.
Especially in this time of political turmoil, social discomfort, and such a complicated landscape, you need to be mindful of these decisions so nothing sneaks up on you.
For small business owners, the decision is not as black and white as it may be for the AirBnBs or Ben&Jerry’s of the world. But customers are now more aware than ever of where their money is going and they’ve come to expect transparency and integrity of the businesses they choose to engage with.
Most importantly: Practice what you preach. Your actions need to align with your values
Involving yourself in a cause is not just sending money to an NGO and forgetting about it. This isn’t rotisserie chicken, after all.
Being a good business citizen begins with making sure you’re walking the walk when it comes to the causes you stand for. There are three ways to do this:
Evaluate your own practices: Both personally and professionally, are your practices aligned with your beliefs? Are you practicing what you’re preaching?
Correct courses: It’s ok if you’ve been unaware of some mistakes or contradictions in your own practices before. But what are you doing now that you know better? It’s at this stage that you can choose to align yourself with your beliefs and amend your past mistakes.
Speak with your wallet: Are you supporting businesses that stand for the same values you do? Are your own customers standing for your values?
“If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything.” - Alexander Hamilton
When you let fear or doubt prevent you from acting and speaking up to support causes that speak to you, you’re diluting who you are and the essence of your business.
Many business owners stay away from making clear, unequivocal statements about current events out of fear of alienating customers. However, in today’s world, people - buyers - use their money to cast a vote for the type of society they want to live in. You may choose to remain the vanilla ice cream of the bunch, being ok to most people. Or you can choose to be the bold passionfruit sorbet, either loved or hated, but impossible to ignore.
While I agree that businesses are in business to make money, as a small business, you have a unique opportunity to impact change through your actions and support.