Should your SME be a charity supporter?

Giving to charity is not only of benefit to society but can also be great for your business. Many businesses suggest that, in fact, charitable donations have seen a positive impact on their business’s reputation and profits. So should your SME be a charity supporter?

Whilst any business should want to give to charity because it is a good thing to do, more and more customers are looking to businesses to be more sustainable, more charitable and treat their employees in a fair manner. If they are using this level of scrutiny to decide where to place their business, then it is understandable that companies, in turn will be taking more consideration over how they react to social causes. 

A recent study looked at small businesses and charity fundraisers. It found that there were many positive attitudes, and a few negative ones of being charity supporters. 

What do the statistics suggest about being a charity supporter?

From 100 businesses that were surveyed, around 25% simply are not interested in giving to charity. 30% of those businesses who do not currently give to charity simply cannot see their being any benefit to their company. However, 62% of those small businesses who do actually make donations to charity do so because it allows them to make a positive contribution to a good cause. 

This charitable giving affords them several positives. These include benefits for growth. It actively helps them to attract new customers and even has a positive impact on the profitability of the company.

It is also estimated that those businesses that donate over 0.5% of their turnover are twice as likely than those who donate below that amount to enhance the reputation of their company, to say nothing of the positive impact it has when retaining staff and recruiting new ones. 

How can you give regularly to charity as a business?

If you want to do the best thing for your business, it is better to subscribe to the idea of sustained giving rather than doing it on a more ad-hoc basis. Make charitable giving part of your company’s culture and ensure it is part of your business model. 

You could start within your local community, which will give your company more of a presence and can really boost the idea of using a local company rather than a nationwide one. This also allows you to support a charity that may not get the kind of exposure that the larger charities are capable of. You could even pick a charity each year in consultation with your employees and make them a part of the whole process. 

Whilst supporting local may not feel like it is doing much, the contribution, no matter how large or small, that your company can make within your community will have a huge impact and help to cement lasting relationships within the community that could stand you in good stead long into the future.