NFIB

Expert Advice on Giving Back to Your Community
03/ 28/ 2002

This Web extra is a supplement to the MyBUSINESS story, "Doing Good by Doing Well," which appears in the November/December 2001 issue.

Brad Googins is executive director of the Center for Corporate Giving at Boston College (www.bc.edu). He talked with MyBUSINESS about the unique position small business owners are in to reinvest in the communities that made them a success.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge for small business owners in giving back?

Googins: Everyone is knocking at a small business owners door asking to donate to this or that cause. You can’t possibly meet all the needs, so it’s a matter of how to screen them without offending a neighborhood group. It puts small business owners in a heck of a bind.

Q: What’s a solution?

Googins: To not think about only financial contributions. The involvement of your business in the community should go beyond giving a check. Because then you’re one of a hundred or thousand companies giving a check. Instead, ask yourself, "What can I do that’s unique?" Maybe it’s a bakery giving free bread to a charity dinner.

Q: How has corporate giving changed in the last few years?

Googins: Today’s company has to be much more strategic in its giving. Consumers more and more make decisions not on traditional issues of quality, but on what kind of business you run. That’s why it’s important for a small business to focus on an issue, and get behind it in a way that makes a difference, rather than giving out $25 gift certificates to every nonprofit in town.

Q: How can giving help a small businesses bottom line?

Googins: Small business owners need to think of this as competitive issue. If all the stores on the street give a gift certificate to a cause, that doesn’t give you any advantage. But if you can do something different, that attracts customers and the media. Be creative and look for the niche that isn’t being filled.

Q: How does a small business owner choose a cause to focus on?

Googins: Ask yourself, "Is there an issue I get passionate about?" Don’t let people knocking on your door determine where you give. The more your giving is tied to your interests, the more you personally will prosper.

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