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Connect with charities to brand and build your business

July 12, 2011 by Laurel Tielis — Author and Professional Speaker, Laurel Tielis & Associates

Whether it's in your business or your personal life, you can't have too many friends. A great way for all businesses to create friendships is by teaming up with a non-profit.

It's an especially good idea for companies that are not smiled upon by everyone. By aligning themselves with non-profits, they please the public and upgrade their image.

For example, for 72 years, until 2003, Texaco sponsored the Metropolitan Opera's live radio broadcasts. That gave the company an opportunity to create an association with a venerable institution and be seen as a friend of the arts.

They did it because the image of big oil and its byproduct, gasoline, is not one that people laud. Partnering with the opera was a way for the company to hear its praises sung.

Likewise, Philip Morris sponsors a branch of the Whitney Museum. That means that people think about it as more than just a company that sells cigarettes.

You'll benefit as well when you team up with a non-profit. One way to do it is to designate a percentage of your sales for the charity of your choice when you plan an event.

The charity will spread the word to its supporters, and that should broaden the base of your attendees, as well as increase your actual sales. Of course, whenever you link up with a 501 (c) (3) you also exponentially increase the possibility of getting media coverage, which means that still more people will know about your business.

But you don't even have to have an event to donate to a charity. You can just pick a date, for example, the anniversary of your store's opening, and give a percentage of purchases that day to a charity of your choice. You, of course, will tell everyone via your website, email, newsletter and mainstream as well as social media.

They'll get the word out to everyone on their lists as well, and both you and the charity will profit. If their supporters become ongoing customers, you'll continue to do well from doing good.

For years, small business owners supported local sports teams and benefited by having their name splashed across the front of t-shirts. While that still works, here's an updated way to partner with local non-profits.

A small hardware business I read about, given three weeks notice, provides free spring water to local charities' fund-raising events. The charities get water they can sell or give away; the hardware store has its name on the bottle so everyone who attends gets to know about them and to see them as a good neighbor.

And along the same lines, it's always a good idea to donate merchandise for goody bags at the charity's events. It can be as simple as shoelaces if you're in the shoe business, to seeds if you're a florist, to diamond cleaner if you're a jeweler. Naturally, all of the products will have your name on them.

But with the okay of the non-profit, you can also go more upscale. You can give away one half of more expensive items–one glove, one earring, etc.—and let event attendees know that the mate is waiting at your store.

At a minimum, you'll be thanked in the program. Sometimes, charities also talk up donations when they introduce the program, so there's a chance you'll be spotlighted there as well.

About Laurel Tielis

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