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Being kind to your fellow man isn’t just about doing the right thing. For the socially conscience business, it offers direct bottom-line benefits, often in the form of new customers. Community outreach programs can improve your reputation, boost existing customer loyalty, and motivate employees, providing intangible but valuable benefits.
But focusing only on the returns to your range overlooks the true value of being socially responsible. Though it’s important to find new avenues to augment revenues, developing a transparent program that clearly shows your business, not the charity, as the beneficiary, can be counterproductive and even disastrous. In effect, you run the risk of developing “negative good will” if people perceive that your business is using charity as a front to turn a profit.
Helping community organizations certainly can bolster a range’s good neighbor image, says Stephen Jones, general manager of Sun ’N Air Driving Range, but that’s not why his Danvers, Mass., facility pitches in. “We like to give back to the community,” he says. “They like to support us, so we like to support them as well.”
The range’s philanthropy is so well known in town that it receives as many as 20 requests a week for donations or to host charitable golf tournaments on its par-3 practice loop. Realizing that the local North Shore United Way serves most of the organizations knocking on the range’s door, Jones and his staff organized a United Way Day last year that raised $2,500 in support of local programs for kids. “The United Way supports a lot of causes so instead of supporting 50 golf tournaments,” the range organized one event that then allowed the agency to allocate the money to organizations in need, Jones says. Sun ’N Air also donates buckets of balls and lessons for giveaways at the local cancer walk, and in the summer, sponsors a reading program through the library, offering children a free cone at the facility’s ice cream stand for each book they read.
What can your range offer? Before signing on to host an event, consider your available resources: time, money and staff. You can still provide a lot of value to the community without going too far out of pocket. And most organizations will do the legwork to bring people to your facility if you provide the location. Lynnhaven Golf Park in Virginia Beach, Va., for example, teamed up with the local firefighters union to host a fund-raising weekend for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The golf park provided the venue and the firefighters provided the promotion, hanging fliers around town and creating a public service announcement that the local TV and radio stations aired. At the end of the event, the golf park donated a percentage of the weekend’s sales to MDA.
Though being a good corporate citizen is about making a difference, it shouldn’t just involve causes that matter to you. Motivate employees to make a difference in causes that matter to them, as well. Encourage employees to become active in the community, either by giving staff paid time off to volunteer or asking them to suggest a charity for the range to support. Numerous studies have found that company-sponsored volunteerism can improve employee morale and strengthen employees’ organizational, leadership and decision-making skills.
You could also ask employees for their ideas on how best to support community organizations. The Small Business Administration recommends first setting specific goals and then matching those goals to the event. For example, sponsoring a water stop during a local benefit 10K creates awareness by putting your name in front of athletes. You should also look for events and programs with obvious tie-ins that allow you to showcase your expertise and facility, for example, golf tournaments and lessons.
Having a sound business rationale for your outreach efforts isn’t exploitation and will bolster your program to the benefit of the charitable organization, but don’t let the “what’s-in-it-for-me” mentality run amuck. Participating in community events and programs can be a win-win—for both your range and your community. Just be sure your heart is in the right place. |
