Contributions to nonprofits help club with retention

Creation of a sense of community, Mike Shirley figures, is a powerful tool to retain customers.

And one of the best ways to build community, says the owner of Double Diamond Athletic Club in Reno, is creation of a charitable program that allows customers to work together to help the community.

But the road from this insight to the first charitable contribution took some thought.

Like many businesses, Double Diamond Athletic Club has been donating to good causes in the community for years donations that have totaled more than $30,000 in recent years. Nothing new there.

But the club located in South Meadows wanted to enlist its members in the charitable giving effort, and it wanted to do more than simply put containers on the front desk where members could drop in some loose change.

Shirley's thinking got a boost from Steve Schroeder, whose Reno-based Synergy Communications LLC provides marketing and public relations services to the athletic club.

Schroeder, whose theme song these days emphasizes the need to retain customers during the economic downturn to save the high cost of recruiting new ones, saw a charitable giving program as a way to build on the club's strengths.

"Members love the club," he says. "Everyone there is enjoying their time together. The question was this: How do we engage them?"

Schroeder and Shirley began kicking around the idea of a charitable fund to which Double Diamond Athletic Club members could contribute either through one-time cash donations or through regular contributions made as part of their monthly dues payments.

Shirley like the idea up to the point that he began thinking about the need to create a separate nonprofit organization to handle the money and tax-related paperwork.

"We didn't want to add a layer of cost for us," he says. "A 501(c)(3) is not what we do."

Enter the Reno Rodeo Foundation, a charitable organization with all the tax-exempt infrastructure in place.

Marie Baxter, the foundation's executive director, and the group's board agreed to provide back-office administration to the newly created Double Diamond Athletic Club Charitable Fund.

The foundation provides its service without charge. All of the money donated by the athletic club's members flows directly to charities that are selected once a quarter.

And the donations can make a difference. A few weeks ago, the Double Diamond charitable fund gave $3,000 to the Back Pack Kids program of the Food Bank of Northern Nevada. The funds are enough to provide simple meals and personal grooming supplies to nourish 40 children who are living in motels, homeless shelters and domestic violence centers over weekends for the remainder of the school year.

Shirley says Double Diamond Athletic Club members are steadily becoming better informed about the program, more are contributing and his goal of a stronger community of members is beginning to become a reality.

"We've got members now who are so proud of what they are doing," he says.