I’ve been in business since 2009 and I’m no stranger to the process of creative problem solving to ensure my business not only stays afloat but is profitable, enjoyable, and charitable. The latter (charitable) was something I wanted to build into my business from the start. While I did that with a monthly animal sponsorship through a local animal sanctuary, I didn’t realize how much charitable giving benefited my business (and personal life) until much later into my business journey. The longer I keep circling back to working in charitable giving into my business plans, the more I discover the additional benefits of giving back.
In the current climate of small businesses pivoting, evolving, and discovering what it’s like to operate after the shock of 2020 that rolled into 2021, approaches to operations that have a positive effect on not just the business, but the community and the business on a personal level are, at least for me, essential to finding motivation and enthusiasm amongst so much uncertainty.
But let’s go back to how (and why) I worked charitable giving into my marketing and business plans in a big way for the first time back in 2011.
After two years in business, I noticed a trend of sales dipping in November between my autumn collection released each October and my winter collection that came out each December. I needed something exciting for November that didn’t involve making something new, and was something that was exciting for my customers. And the cherry on the top would be something that I as a business owner could get excited about too! The idea also needed to be a promotion or incentive that didn’t take a lot of behind-the-scenes (or forward-facing) work to get off the ground.
As every business owner knows, coming up with unique, fun, and profitable promotions can sometimes feel like a full-time job in and of itself. But in true creative entrepreneur fashion, inspiration struck me at the most random time – while sorting out my inbox trying to wrap up my workday: “What if I ran a soap drive where the proceeds went to a local charity?” I mused. “But if I’m donating all the profits, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of trying to get more sales during my ‘slump month’?” It was a legitimate question, but something (likely the excitement of an altruistic-driven campaign) whispered to me, “just try it!”… so I did!
Long story short, it was a success for the two charities I donated to that year, for myself (it fired me up to enthusiastically work through the holiday season – which can be notorious for killing enthusiasm! The fourth quarter for retail businesses is no joke!), and for my customers.
And that last point – a benefit for my customers – is as important as the benefit for the charities. My customers loved that they could help two local charities while treating themselves (and their friends and family) to local, handmade, artisan goods. It created a feel-good shopping experience for them, which helped them feel good about my business and their purchases.
But did November remain a ‘slump month’ for me? Sales numbers increased while customers shopped for soap bars, but at the end of November, did I make any additional revenue after the donations were made to the charities?
It turns out I did! While customers shopped for soap bars, they purchased additional items from the shop; items they probably wouldn’t have tried until they returned to my shop for the release of my winter collection in December.
The takeaway is that the annual charity soap drive, year after year, continues to help keep sales coming in consistently between the launch of my autumn and winter collections, but that’s only the start of the benefits.
The additional benefits to running a campaign focused on giving back became crystal clear while running a small business during the extra stress, uncertainty, and pressures of operating during COVID-19. And that’s what I want to help other business owners discover with this article.
It’s nice to hear about how this method has worked consistently during times of “business as usual”, but that may not feel relevant during the holiday season for 2021. So as business owners plan out their holiday promotions, let me quickly list the benefits when every penny and every second counts.
1. A charitable campaign is an easy way to showcase your brand (and personal) values.
For a business’s branding and messaging to hit home, it needs to speak to a shared value that the customer can get behind. And for that value to be believable, it needs to be showcased through tangible actions. For example, a core value of mine is compassion. That core value shows up in my business as the “why” behind my brand. My brand “why” is to contribute to a kinder world. An annual soap drive that gives back to charity is a tangible way to live out that value and fulfill my brand’s “why.”
2. A charitable campaign can create buzz around your business or products.
Sometimes its gets hard to muster another marketing promotion talking about our products – and frankly, after ten plus years, it can get a bit boring as a business owner. Of course, there’s a multitude of ways to solve that problem, but for me, talking about a secondary benefit that’s outside of the products (like supporting the essential work a charity is doing in the community) breathes fresh life into our marketing and can get our customers talking about business in a new way. On a personal level, it’s a great way to meet people that you already have something in common with!
3. A charitable campaign helps out a hard-hit charity.
This benefit is pretty obvious, but it’s important to highlight that charities and nonprofits are the backbones of communities. They provide essential services and support that might not otherwise exist. Many of these organizations have struggled with donations, volunteers, and resources during the pandemic. Partnering small businesses with charities is a great community-led model that gives back to everyone involved.
4. A charitable campaign helps out the business owner.
This benefit isn’t about the potential monetary gain but instead about helping an overworked, stressed-out small business owner find their motivation again. It helps stoke the fires of creativity, community, and goodwill. This couldn’t be more true for me after we undertook relocating our life, business, and animal sanctuary in the middle of the pandemic from Ontario to Atlantic Canada. Finding the drive to do much of anything in my business short of getting orders out the door was a struggle until I started planning out this year’s annual soap drive. While burnt out and fatigue haven’t magically gone away, raising money for a cause I deeply believe in has reinvigorated my motivation and reframed “work” from feeling like work to feeling like a purposeful part of my day.
If you’d like to work a charitable campaign into your marketing this holiday season, here are some suggestions for getting started:
- Decide on how you’ll support a cause you believe in. This could include a certain percentage from a collection of products, a percentage of all sales, a specific dollar amount from all sales (or from one particular product), etc. Check your profit margins, and decide on something that works financially and is easy to track.
- Decide on the organization you’ll donate to. For this decision, you can make it based on a specific organization that you feel strongly about donating to, or you could put it to a vote (I asked my customers to vote on the charity we’d raise money for in the past. I simply had them nominate their favorite charity on a social media post, and the charity that was nominated the most was who we raised money for). If you put it to a vote, just be sure to give some parameters that align with your brand or personal values (for example, for me, that includes raising money for animals in need). You may also want to include whether the organization needs to be local to your area or a registered charity.
- Determine how you’ll communicate to your customers about the charitable campaign. Essentially this is your marketing plan for the event. This could include emails, social media posts, a banner in your online shop, a blog post, etc. As well as deadlines around when those marketing activities will happen.
- Run the campaign, tally up the amount made, and donate to the charity.
- Be sure to share about the donation your business has made to reinforce that your brand can be trusted to follow through with the promise of giving back to a specific organization in a timely manner. A social media post will often suffice.
- Evaluate how the campaign went. Ask yourself questions like:
- Did my organic website traffic increase?
- Did my sales increase?
- What feedback did I receive from my customers about the event?
- How do I feel about running a campaign like this again and what would I change?
Small businesses partnering with charities and nonprofits are, in my opinion, a beautiful way for kind creatives to support their community while doing the work they love. I hope this piece has inspired you to consider running a charitable campaign and wish you the very best in the soulful work you’re doing in the world.
