NFIB

Small Business Owners Give Back
03/ 27/ 2002

by Shannon Scully and Lisa Waddle

The shocking events of recent months have awakened the charitable inclinations of many Americans. For most small business owners, though, it's business as usual in every respect. That's because generosity to their community and the wider world is standard practice for small business owners in wartime and peacetime.

They may not be able to write a charity check with as many zeroes as a large corporation can, but Main Street businesses are better positioned to make a difference with their donations of time, products and services because they know their communities. And they feel more invested in helping out the local town or city where their home and livelihood are based.

As the following small business owners show, there are many creative ways you can chip in. From pro bono services to sponsorship of local events, we've categorized five ways small businesses are not only helping others, but boosting their bottom lines as well.

Small business owners know you can both serve community needs and meet business demands. Companies with a sense of purpose gain a competitive edge, because being socially responsible helps attract and keep employees, clarifies mission, increases your visibility and enhances your reputation.

1. Giving it away

Owen Cleaners has been contributing to the Paducah, Ky., community for 15 years, cleaning coats that are donated through a program to clothe the needy. Dave Perry, third-generation owner of the 81-year-old business, estimates he's dry cleaned over 55,000 coats for free.

"It's a little bit intimidating to see 8,000 coats come in the door to be cleaned," Perry admits. "But we think it's well worth it."

Coats are collected in the fall, then cleaned and donated by the time cold weather begins. Some of the 55 employees at Owen volunteer their time to clean the coats, while Perry pays others and donates all supplies.

The program is run in partnership with others in the community, including the postal carriers, who pick up coats left at mailboxes, and the NBC affiliate television station, which advertises the program and does several live shots from one of Owen Cleaners' seven locations. It all adds up to great publicity and visibility for Owen, at http://www.owencleaners.com.

As part of its year-round give-back, Owen also cleans all American flags for free.

"Every small business owner gets called on a lot," Perry says. "You can look at it as a problem or recognize you do have a role to play in your community."

Sometimes the most successful giving back programs aren't planned. Landscaper Bruce Zaretsky was approached by a nonprofit mental health center in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y., to bid on a courtyard garden project. Zaretsky, who started his eight-employee company in 1990, decided he'd take on the project pro bono. The "healing garden" created at the Crestwood Children's Center ended up taking five months and about 15,000 hours of labor, much done by Zaretsky himself. He managed to get some supplies donated, but paid for the rest. He issued a press release on completion and got some local press, as well as a sign posted in the garden.

"We didn't do it for the recognition," says Zaretsky, who grew up in Rochester. "I'm amazed I can earn a living doing what I do, because I consider it play. So I want to give something back."

Portland, Me.-based Casco Bay Wool Works tries to keep its community warm by donating about $7,000 worth of blankets a year to local groups. Owner Dory-Ann Richards Waxman and her company of five employees have given away plaid, wool blankets to patients at the nearby Ronald McDonald House, victims of an ice storm who were without power and several charities who've used them in silent auctions.

2. Donating to established causes

Employees at image management company STC Associates aren't just giving back, they're giving up their office dog of the last year to be a seeing eye dog.

The volunteer effort comes from agency owner Sophie Ann Terisse's strong commitment to the blind. She worked as a teacher's aid for a blind teacher before launching STC in 1992. When Lorie Beers, chief operating officer, agreed to take responsibility for Kipper at night, the 20-employee firm got behind the program.

"It's the best thing I do and the best thing I've ever done," says Beers. "It's so rewarding. Kipper gives so much to us as an agency and to me personally."

Black lab Kipper arrived at STC's Manhattan offices at 14 weeks old and will stay until she's about 22 months old. Then New York-based Guiding Eyes for the Blind will train her in harness work before placing her with a blind client. At STC, she spends her day mostly under Beers' desk, and has been conditioned to get used to client meetings, strange delivery folks and the constant chaos of the streets of New York City.

"The program is an extension of our corporate philosophy," says Terisse, "which is to provide guidance and vision to the organizations we work with."

Kipper's been well-received among STC employees and clients, with many donating to the Guiding Eyes after being won over by her. The program has also helped STC stand out in the consulting community.

"You can put a copy of a program you did in your portfolio, but a 75-pound lab is hard to overlook," Beers says. "She gets people's attention."

West Virginia concrete company Hoy Redi-Mix has regularly written checks for local child-related charities, but last year turned its 20 cement mixers into mobile billboards. As each truck comes up for a paint job, Hoy paints a charity's logo onto the side. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Ronald McDonald House and West Virginia Children's Hospital have all gained exposure on the trucks. Brett Bennett, manager of Hoy's Morgantown plant, estimates it costs $500 to paint each truck's concrete mixer drum. "It makes you shine in the public eye and you're helping out a needy cause," Bennett says. "It's a no-lose situation."

Since 1979, the Molly Maid franchise has been making homes cleaner. For the last four years, franchisee owners of the cleaning service have also been working to make homes safer, by collecting personal care items and donating them to domestic violence shelters during October, which is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Last year, Donna Reilly, who owns a Molly Maid in Annapolis, Md., collected $1,300 in products and donations.

For the last decade, John Level, president of Hi-Rel Laboratories in Spokane, Wash., has opened his modern testing lab to area schools. He allows teachers to make appointments for one of the monthly four-hour sessions that offer sixth- and seventh-graders access to high-tech equipment that their schools can't afford.

"These are demonstrations that can't be done in schools because they can be dangerous," Level says. "We make it fun to attract kids to science."

With only 23 employees, Hi-Rel Labs doesn't have unlimited resources. But Level believes so firmly in the need to entice young students to science that he's willing to devote the time and money. Since many public schools don't have the field trip budget for bus transportation, Level pays for that, and he treats everyone to pizza and soda for lunch. This year, Hi-Rel set up a complete science laboratory at an area private school that couldn't afford it. They've also contributed to a new laboratory at North Seattle Community College, helping to establish a two-year science degree there.

"It was expensive, but it is tax deductible," Level says modestly. "We watch our profits and spend based on what we make."

When Cindy and Kevin Abel started their Internet technology consulting business in 1997, they decided to make community service a part of their core values. All 20 employees at Atlanta-based Abel Solutions are involved in Hands on Atlanta, a group affiliated with the national organization CityCares. Abel's employees have helped schools and community organizations.

"Kevin and I feel like it's part of our responsibility as small business owners," says Cindy Abel. For more on the program, visit http://www.citycares.org.

Through the Service Corps of Retired Executives, or SCORE, small business owners can volunteer to counsel other entrepreneurs.

"I wanted to contribute to the organization that helped me," says K.D. Sullivan, owner of Creative Solutions, a proofreading company in San Francisco. She used her local SCORE chapter upon launching her virtual company eight years ago. Now, she shares her experience of starting on a shoestring and growing into a national company with other start-ups. Go to http://www.score.org or call 1-800-634-0245 for more information.

By day, he owns Bob's Shoe Repair, an eight-employee shop in Wayzata, Minn. But nights in November, Bob Fisher puts himself in the shoes of the homeless, sleeping in a tent in his front yard to raise money and awareness.

"As I became aware of the affordable housing needs in the community, I just figured somebody had to do something," Fisher says of his idea. Six years ago, Fisher raised $10,000 at his store during his first sleep-out. Last year, he raised $280,000. This year, he pitches his tent on Nov. 17 with a goal of raising $400,000. All money goes to the local Interfaith Outreach and Community Partners nonprofit, which provides emergency housing assistance to needy families.

Fisher gets local media attention, and it's a way to support the cause without taking time off from his 21-year-old business. "It's a little more uncomfortable than sleeping inside," Fisher says modestly. "But it's worth it to see the community take on this cause."

Though few will admit it, Robin Deford and Chris Lally know that personal image is important in the business world. That's why the co-owners of a retail cosmetics company in Jenkintown, Pa., began helping local women who are leaving the welfare program to work. Deford and Lally, and their six employees at Saa Regime, give free make-overs and show these women how to apply makeup appropriate for a professional environment.

"Our business is to make women feel good about themselves, and our Best Face Forward program is just an extension of that," says Lally, who with Deford purchased the company from her cousin four years ago. "It's amazing to see the change in the women after their make-overs. They're instantly more confident."

Saa Regime assists women being helped by The Working Wardrobe, a Philadelphia-based charitable organization that collects professional clothing for disadvantaged women who are striving to become self-sufficient. Saa Regime also hands out goody bags filled with discontinued cosmetic products, which cost the company almost nothing.

The owners, who met as international flight attendants years ago, say additional profit is not why they give back. "You have to admire anyone who is trying to pull themselves out of a bad situation," says Deford. "We want to show these women that they're worth the effort."

3. Involving employees

Many small business owners recognize that encouraging employees to volunteer can promote change and growth inside a company, as well as provide training opportunities.

To celebrate their 20th anniversary at advertising agency Regnier, Valdez & Associates (http://www.regval.com), employees voted to donate their time to four community service projects. One Friday during each quarter, the San Antonio, Texas, office closed while employees worked for charitable organizations they had chosen as a group. The 12-person firm helped landscape a nearby park, hosted a pet adoption day, threw a party for the kids at a nearby school for the deaf and pitched in on a Habitat for Humanity house. The cost was minimal--the company hired an answering service to answer the phones and bought lunch for its employees and party favors for the children.

"We wanted to give back to the community that has made us so successful over the past 20 years," said founder Linda Valdez. "Our employees really enjoyed working together on projects that had nothing to do with their work."

Do the division, and each of the 13 employees at the public relations firm of Lambert, Edwards & Associates Inc., have donated more than a week of their time to nonprofit groups this year. Jeffrey Lambert, co-founder of the three-year-old Grand Rapids, Mich., firm, estimated the 600 pro bono hours donated to a dozen groups was worth $72,000.

"It's easy to write a check, but infinitely more valuable to give our talents," says Lambert. "It has affected our bottom line positively, because when we're out donating our work we're building relationships, and that helps with recruiting employees and with branding."

The program also provides a training opportunities for employees who decide where they want to volunteer.

Richard Pine doesn't just encourage his employees to volunteer--he requires it. Employees at O'Neill Pine Company/Financial Products and Services Inc., in Salem, Ore., are told during the interview process about the company's policy that everyone donate 10 percent of their paid work time to charitable organizations. For most of the five employees who are on a 30-hour a week work schedule, this translates to three hours a week. Employees donate their time to local schools, an economic development group and a forestry association.

"The most gratifying part of the program is that we've seen it act as a catalyst to even greater giving," says Pine, who finds that his employees donate three more hours to each single hour they're paid for.

Only once has a potential employee been uninterested in the job after learning of the company's policy. "I was very glad to find it out upfront," says Pine. "It tells me that we're just not the right match."

4. Creating a new program

Shelly Seale grew up being told she could be whatever she wanted. And in 1990 when she started her four-person corporate relocation company, RPS Relocation, she realized the importance of the childhood support.

"If I had not had the reassurance, I would never have thought I could own my own business. I decided that I wanted to be that support to girls who may not be fortunate enough have it at home," Seale says.

To help at-risk teens who may have never considered entrepreneurship as a career path, Seale started Girls Who Dare. The eight-week program allows girls to come up with their own ideas for a business and then walks them through tasks associated with starting a business.

"You can really see the girls get into it after a while," Seale says, who started the program in 1999. "Most of them have never thought they could do anything other than be an hourly worker." The program has brought Seale more than personal satisfaction. Two of her top employees said knowing about the program made them want to work for RPS.

5. Sponsoring local events

If you can't find time to volunteer, consider sponsoring local community activities. That's how Greg Ryan reinvests in the Denver metro area, where for 13 years he's run the remanufactured engine shop, Ryan Engine Exchange. For the last seven years, he's sponsored a dozen youth baseball and football teams in the area, at a cost of $250 to $500 each. His company's name gets on the kids' uniforms, and on banners hung at all games. "I don't have much time to even get out to the games," Ryan says. "But this is a way to give back to the community I grew up in

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This article originally appeared in the November/December 2001 issue of MyBusiness Magazine, NFIB's member magazine.

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