Every year, starting around Thanksgiving, we start celebrating with our teams and our families, reflect on the year that was, and look forward to the future. And as we get together with the people we love, it’s impossible not to feel grateful.
Even as we feel grateful for what we have, I’ve spoken to a lot of people, particularly this year, who want to do more for others and aren’t sure where to start. For businesses, there are lots of great reasons to give and you’ll always get some benefits from giving.
If you put some thought into how you’d like to give beforehand, though, your efforts are more likely to make a greater impact. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Know your core values.
If you haven’t written down your core values as a company and identified the traits that make you you, do that first. These are the values that you hold that you’re not willing to change as your business model might, based on your market (or your market might change based on your business model).
For example, at Point of Rental, our core values are EPIC – Empowering, Principled, Innovative, and Caring. So no matter what we’re doing as a company, it needs to be in line with those principles – including our giving.
Contribute based on your core values.
Once you’ve established your core values, it’s a matter of finding causes that support them. Whether the groups are local, community-focused, or global, you and your team can figure out where you want the money to go.
Leppo Rents uses equipment wraps to raise funds for charities near to their hearts. We’ve worked with organizations worldwide that empower people in innovative ways, care for others, and operate in a principled way. An easy way to validate bigger charities is to check out Charity Navigator, which lists active charities generating at least $1 million in revenue annually and rates them based on their financial health, accountability, and transparency.
Don’t just give; share!
If you’re like me and a lot of other people in this industry, you have this internal voice telling you to keep your donations and your good works private – that broadcasting your donation diminishes it. You don’t want to be seen as patting yourself on the back.
As Glenn from Leppo Rents mentioned in the link above, though, a lot of times – particularly with smaller, local charities – groups want you to share that information. It helps legitimize them in the eyes of others to be seen working with you. Giving begets giving, and the donation you make can turn into countless other donations going to causes you believe in.
We always wish we could do more to help people; by concentrating on our core values, working with organizations and people that share those values, and sharing what we’re doing, we can maximize our giving and help the most people possible.
Through our non-profit giving platform, Point the Way, Point of Rental works with several charities that align with our EPIC core values – empowering, principled, innovative, and caring. If you’d like to check out (or donate to) the global organizations we work with, here are their sites:
Opportunity International | Distrito de Alto Rendimiento | Naomi’s Village | Big Group Hug | Habitat for Humanity