Businesses benefit from people who have talent, energy, teamwork, and drive. They hold on to people who have these qualities as long as they can. But what makes an employee stay as long as possible in a company? Is it because of the salary? The promotion? Benefits? You can point a finger to these but may not feel entirely convinced. This is because of man’s natural urge to give back, and with whatever culture a business is based upon, a successful one never fails to do corporate philanthropy.
Besides building business ethics based on a rule book like keeping discipline intact, making sure your employee represents your brand well, and that they are doing their job accordingly, should be established — no question about that. But people are complex beings where their needs follow a specific pattern.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs represents this quite briefly.
While employees are satisfied with everything that their job provides such as food, shelter, clothing, and a set of the supportive group initially, there’s self-confidence and self-achievement that knock on them as they reach their 10th year in the job. These are the highest levels of human need, the real sense of achievement which is not attained by riches, status, or any fame but by serving a bigger purpose. More significant than one’s self. They are being selfless to be exact.
Benefits of Corporate Philanthropy
Whether it’s just within the company or outside a business, corporate philanthropy makes it possible for any employer to keep its workers inspired, purposeful, and driven. On top of these fundamental attributes are the other benefits any business may consider worth pondering on:
Work-Life Balance
People get to see the real problems of the world like hunger, poverty, prostitution, and sickness. Through this, they get to see how blessed they are and what they truly have. They appreciate the most important things in life which are life itself, the ability to help, and the ability to say what they have is enough.
Education
Education is one of the greatest sources of knowledge. Immersing your corporate team to a philanthropic act teaches them awareness, appreciation, oneness, and most of all, humility. It can teach them a lot about life. That there’s more to it than work, money, and material things. Relationships, opportunities, and how you touch lives become part of your education. These are things that are not taught in the classrooms and yet, are the most important lessons. If your business practices philanthropy, it resonates to those whom you help. And with your employees being part of such a noble act, they feel good about themselves being part of the business’ soul. They’d love going to work because they have this unbreakable self-esteem and almost reaching self-actualisation. And once fully reached, you would never need anything anymore.
Reputation
No business, brand, or company, reputation is to be messed with. Instead, it should be given enough effort to be established. While this should be the least aim for doing corporate philanthropy, it’s undeniable that while you move for a cause, or while you dedicate some products for charity, you gain a community of people who are philanthropists themselves practising exactly what you do. Just a simple declaration that you’re using recycled materials in making your product is already admirable enough to gain a reputation for being environmental-friendly. That in itself speaks for your brand’s truth.
Good Karma
In line with a good reputation is the good karma that follows a pay-it-forward motion in which you become the source and the inspiration behind one simple yet powerful thing, the act of ‘giving’. A philanthropic act may be just one drop in the ocean. But it will send out a ripple effect to those whose lives may have depended on it, to those who were seeking hope, and to those who had considered it their last chance.
All of these benefits deepen the world’s perception of your business. Overall, philanthropy strengthens your purpose which, along with the rest of the world, is supposed to be better and bigger than just earning money.
