4 Things Businesses Should Consider for Social Impact
Tags: Corporate Giving, Stakeholder Capitalism, Social Impact, B Corp, Community

Connecting Through Giving

At ShoppingGives, we enable brands to make a difference while including customers and measuring the power of impact. We provide a native giving experience on-site that encourages and informs customers while also measuring bottom-line impact and handling all donation collection and disbursement. As a Certified B Corporation, we aim to make giving easier so brands can focus more on the good they’re doing and less about how to do good.

Our program has shown that customers care about giving; those who select their own cause spend more and those who are donors in general are the most valuable shoppers. It’s not enough to set and forget donations; brands need to be deliberate in their giving.

When we bring on new partners, we recommend taking a 360-degree approach that addresses team, customers, community, and product. Aligning your impact within these four segments is how your brand can take a genuine position on the causes that you stand for.

Team

Your team is made up of your biggest brand advocates, so it’s important to take a stand with and for them in your corporate social responsibility strategy. They will drive your values and advocate for your mission. What matters to them? What will they confidently defend? How can you take your team’s spirit and translate that through your brand? Look to your team to help inform decisions. No brand is made of just one voice, and the same should be said about its impact. Our team prioritizes each other’s values and beliefs with surveys, roundtable discussions, and anonymous feedback. These can be a great place to start if your brand is looking to gain an understanding of internal beliefs.

A great example of a business bringing team values to life is The Sis Kiss. When beginning their giving strategy, every member of the team picked a nonprofit close to their heart to highlight on site and give back to. This sort of activation can boost morale and strengthen your employee relationships.

Another example of team engagement in giving is Kenneth Cole. Social good is central to Kenneth Cole’s existence and they have created a strong value system that their team rallies behind. Kenneth Cole offers opportunities to their stakeholders throughout the year in the form of fundraisers, days of service, and donation drives to participate in their impact mission. This drives engagement with the team and builds excitement around what matters most to them internally.

Customers

Of course, it is important to take your customers’ values into account when crafting an impact-driven brand message as well. With shoppers buying with their values now more than ever, taking a stance for a cause important to your customers will build their loyalty. You also must decide as a company which values you draw the line at, if any. Sometimes your company beliefs will cost you customers, and you should be prepared for those situations.

One example of this can be seen following the murder of George Floyd. Many brands had not taken a look at their internal values and assessed where they stood on race and injustice. Beyond that, brands that had a strong sense of what they stood for, even if it wasn’t related to police brutality, were more prepared and prompt in coming forward with powerful messages of support and change that resonated with many customers and potentially lost them others. Shoppers have more access to information than ever, and they’ll know when a brand is making an authentic statement. Ben & Jerry’s has received praise for its statement against white supremacy. Brands that made a statement that didn’t match up to their actions or beliefs were called out by former employees and customers.

It’s not enough to make statements; customers expect action and authentic advocacy. While your brand may not be well-versed in issues that arise, you must learn and grow to move forward.