Being Part of the Community

9 Mar 2017

This can be a very difficult balance, do you do this just to gain some recognition or is a genuine effort to add something to your community or the place where you work?

My son came to me recently as a coach of an under 8’s football team and asked if we would like to sponsor the kids with a new strip. After a short conversation, we decided that we would be delighted to and it would be a great thing to do as part of our local community.

But what is the benefit to us as a business?

Would we like our logo on the front of the kit? Of course we would, but in terms of advertising and publicity, it’s not going to be a bit money maker. Would we also like a picture with the kids wearing the kit with our name on? That would be great, but again, aside from some good pictures for social media, it doesn’t help the business in a huge way.

So why do it?

The fact that we have sponsored the kit will hopefully achieve a few things for us, it will give us a fuzzy feeling inside because we have done something that is just ‘a nice thing to do’. Hopefully the team here at OpenCRM will feel that we have shown that we are truly part of the community that we work in and we don’t just say it. Thirdly (and most importantly), a group of 7 and 8 year old boys and girls will be running around in a shiny new kit feeling proud as punch that they belong to their team.

The benefit to our business has nothing to do with our business, if that makes sense. The benefit to our business is that we will have made a small, but positive difference to our local community.

At OpenCRM we have a strong ethos about giving back, take our Hope Walk for Papyrus for example, this isn’t just us making a donation this is a group of enthusiastic individuals raising that donation and it was great fun.

So whether you are making a donation or raising some money for a good cause remember the reasons that you are doing it. Remember you should make it rewarding for both individuals and business.