Effects of the cause

Have you ever wondered what it is like for your employees on Monday morning? Do they jump out of bed, happy to start another week of work? Or, do they dread it? Well, vacations and sleep will always win over work. Getting the work done and earning a good wage is great. Plus, mission statements, strategic plans and visions do help get everyone in the company working together. But, is there something at work that your employees can get really excited about? Sometimes that will have nothing to do with the daily work, but more about the culture of your business, especially with younger employees.

Gone are the days of the Traditionalists (1900-1945) who strove for a lifetime career and Baby Boomers (1946-1964) who were/are workaholics. The newer work force, Generation X (1965-1980) and Nexters (1981-1999), want more from a workplace. They demand a life outside of the organization and a meaningful workday with lots of interaction and learning. Taking on a cause at work and allocating the time to volunteer is one way to add balance, dimension, fun and meaning to the workday

Looking outside of the company walls and into our community and the world and how our businesses can make a difference is good practice. Consumers are really expecting corporations to do good things and charitable partnerships are becoming standard business practice.

According to the 2005 PR Week Cause Survey, 45 percent of corporations expect their budgets dedicated to cause marketing to increase this year. And the majority of respondents (78 percent) felt that such partnerships are a necessary practice in today's competitive landscape both for marketing to customers and recruiting employees. The survey polled 346 corporate respondents.

Many businesses in our community are taking its commitment of causes and nonprofit partnerships beyond the usual cash donations. It's not so much about writing checks anymore. It's more about getting your people in the company and your customers emotionally engaged in initiatives that say something about your company and your brand.

Clean communities, open space, litter, the environment, medical research, hunger, underprivileged citizens, at-risk youth, hospice, the homeless people and animals, human rights... The list is endless. I would wager that there is a cause, or a group of causes, which if adopted by your business, would make all of your employees feel better about coming to work and your customers proud to do business with you.

So what's the return on investment of cause and non-profit commitments? Some are intangible. Company morale might be one. Your employees will respect the example you set. Secondly, why not give back to the community and economy that is creating a living for you and your employees? And finally, setting a culture of good works may lead to better employee retention.

There are also some tangibles to cause marketing. A little more than half of those polled (54 percent) say that such programs results in increases in sales or retail traffic. A full 76 percent says that they think consumers are more likely to buy products from companies that volunteer in the community and have causes that employees rally around.

There are lots of good causes in the Truckee Meadows. To start, get your staff involved in selecting an appropriate alliance based on theirs or your customers' interest. Align your business with worthy causes by identifying core needs, problems, or opportunities in either your community or your industry. Then pick a cause that is appropriate for you to be associated with. If your business caters to families, consider supporting youth sports, child welfare projects, or literacy. If your product appeals to women, consider supporting spousal abuse programs, shelters, or breast cancer awareness campaigns. As you are considering the whole landscape of causes in the community, spread the responsibility among your employees.

I wish I could say yes to every request our company receives. I wish I could say yes to every organization that needs help. Then, again, I would probably go bankrupt! Here are a few questions for you to answer before you say yes:

1. What type of people will you be interfacing with? Are they decision makers who will make the volunteering easy to do? You need buy-in from the top leadership on both sides.

2. How "deep" is the request? For example, will there be others within your company who will be doing the work on company time?

3. What type of work are they asking you to do? For example, if you are a CPA, will you be doing tax returns gratis? You may consider doing something completely different from what you do all day. One of the side benefits may be putting your personal problems in perspective. Go serve dinner at a soup kitchen and all of a sudden the timing on your Porsche becomes irrelevant.

4. Can you recoup your expenses, if there are any?

There are no right answers to the questions above, but it is good to go into a partnership with your eyes open. After you and your staff has decided which charities and organizations to support, do your due diligence before you say yes. The checklist follows:

* Conduct research to determine if the organization is successful in its mission and how it allocates its funds.

* Ascertain if the organization is partnered with reputable organizations and has a positive standing in the community.

* Determine how the organization can align your company's goals to assist with your marketing and visibility.

* Check to see if the charity is registered, has a tax-exempt status with the IRS, is audited by a public accounting firm and is politically active.

Finally, this is not a short-term commitment. The results from our employees might be immediate, but the public will take time to associate your company with a cause. Ultimately, a company's image will be judged by its ability to deliver value over the long term to social causes that their constituents care about.

In closing, let me say, that you can't do everything. Start out slow and make sure that you can keep the commitments you are making. You will be working against the very thing you are trying to accomplish by never showing and never completing projects. Volunteering, sitting on boards, helping with events, getting out into the community is a good thing for your staff and customers. Make sure you and your staff are ready for the commitment.

Marlene Olsen, marlene@o-apr.com, is president of Olsen & Associates Public Relations. Inc. of Reno.