There was a time when it was considered tacky to announce your company’s charitable giving to the world. However, times have changed, and the younger generations of consumers want to know more about how you give back to the community. Many demand that the companies they do business with consider their good fortune and sponsor regular charitable giving.

At the same time, these younger generations are savvy and know when you simply give lip service to your charitable giving to win customers. So, you and your team should carefully consider the organizations you sponsor so they align with your company’s culture and goals.

Once your home services business is well on its way to establishing its corporate social responsibility platform, you can incorporate a good public relations strategy to help you get the word out about your work and how it benefits your chosen charities.

Choosing your Charity

The first step in choosing a charity your company can get behind is to start with online research. You probably already know of some worthy local charities through word-of-mouth. You may also know of some national charities you’d like to consider, but you aren’t sure how much of your donations would go to the recipients.

This is where your online research comes in. Several websites, such as GuideStar or CharityNavigator, can provide you with some insight into each organization’s spending, resource allocation and staff salary information.

You should pick charities that are transparent, have a clear mission, an informative website and, most importantly, can develop a shared purpose with you, your employees and your company.

Once you have selected several you feel you can support, it’s time to get your employees’ input. It’s important to remember that your staff isn’t going to be as gung ho if they don’t buy into a charity you have selected by yourself.

By letting your staff vote on the choices, you’ll give them the opportunity to pick one suitable to the group — and, in doing so, you’ll instantly have choices that reflect your company’s culture.

Promoting your involvement

Once you and your staff have made your selections, it’s time to get in touch with the charities you choose to see the best ways you and your team can provide them with the help they need. Whether donating your time, raising money for their efforts through a drive or providing a certain amount of the profits from a sale you have, it’s best to let the charity decide where they need the most assistance.

Once you have determined your schedule, it’s time to get talking. Write regular blogs announcing your efforts so others in the community can help raise funds or donate their time. Let your followers on social media channels know your plans and issue a press release stating your intentions.

Not only does this result in your company being seen in a positive light, but it also allows you to personally interact with people online before and in person at the events.

The art of good PR not only involves boosting your company’s visibility but also showing your brand in a positive light. Your company can become synonymous with supporting a positive force for change in your community and for the people, animals or services you have decided to support.

Promoting the charity

Another side benefit to promoting your charitable works is that you will be boosting the visibility of the charities you’ve chosen.

Many smaller charities don’t have the resources to fund a PR strategy, so they rely on getting their message out through their social media channels, blogs and partner involvement.

By hosting and promoting an event to raise donations or volunteer time to an event the charity has scheduled, you also help the charity reach a more robust audience.

You can use your social media accounts, blog and any enewsletters you might produce as conduits to get more eyes on your charitable organizations’ goals and initiatives.

Additionally, you can use stories about how your donations are directly helping recipients in real time. There’s nothing like a first-hand account of how your donations bought food for needy children or how your team’s volunteer days assisted in finding homes for several abandoned dogs and cats. These accounts are interesting, inspiring and sure to win you followers and customers.

Or you could go green

An external charity may not fit with your company culture. Maybe your employees would prefer to tackle becoming better stewards of the earth by “going green” in-house.

You could switch your breakroom plates and utensils to biodegradable materials, install the smart thermostats and low-flow faucets and toilets you recommend to clients to reduce electricity and water usage, or change your company’s service vans to electric or hybrid vehicles. 

You could even vow to do business with partners that source their materials from sustainable forests or with those that keep their factories close to their partners to reduce fossil-fuel use.

Once you’ve made these changes, you should incorporate them into your overall website messaging and social media postings. Tout that you live by example and encourage your audience to do the same.

Whether you decide to support an external charity or make a positive change in your business practices, the act of “doing good” doesn’t have to be an act of pure sacrifice. It can also be used as a PR tool in your arsenal to help those in need as you attract more like-minded customers.