For many businesses, over many years, the idea of community work was clouded by the belief that it involves large funds, time, and an enormous number of resources.
Over the last decade especially in the last couple of years, community or CSI projects have evolved and businesses are now able to understand that investing, in whatever form or shape, into your local community goes beyond a once-off donation or an annual visit to a local charity. COVID has made many people vulnerable and there is a desperate need for businesses to reach out to their local communities and make a real difference in the lives of the people closest to them.
The value of one’s time or expertise often far exceeds the monetary value of a donation.
A few such examples are below:
- A business is made up of business units that comprise of specialists within their respective fields. Smaller businesses in the community can greatly benefit from these experts if they conduct knowledge sharing sessions.
- Donating time to give a free service towards community-driven services or small businesses in the community to save them from having to onboard expensive permanent resources.
- When there is a national state of disaster there is an opportunity for businesses in specific fields to make a difference with immediate impact. Such as food stores when there is a food shortage or shelter when people are left homeless.
- Businesses allow their employees to donate time during working hours to their choice of charity. This cultivates a positive culture and adds great value to establishing internal brand ambassadors. It adds value to the employee wellness program as doing good for others often results in feeling good yourself. You will find that often people with families have the passion or will to get involved in charities, but they simply don’t have the time after or before work with their family commitments.
- In-office events to raise funds. Often these type of events takes on the form of team building or lend to internal department challenges.
- Create awareness for a certain cause and challenge other businesses to make contributions towards the selected cause.
Same as what businesses are different and have various objectives and strategies it is important to also understand that as individuals, we contribute in different ways. Some people might not feel comfortable being in the limelight and would rather support the project in the background and understanding and supporting your employees to contribute in their unique way is key.
When you entrench yourself in your local community it automatically has positive spin-offs such as below:
- It increases brand awareness in your area and makes people resonate with your brand.
- It cultivates trust and essentially people do business with people they trust which is not the ultimate goal of community upliftment but when your business is sustainable and profitable it essentially lends opportunities for future community development projects.
- Studies have shown that volunteering helps counteract the effects of stress, anger, and anxiety. Read more here.
At Ubunye we are a family and the community that we support is our extended family. Therefore, it is not a choice we are given to get involved and help, we have to because we care and want to make a difference!
