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By Kahryn Riley
Did you know that charitable giving could give your business a boost? As millennials grow into the largest segment of the workforce, employers are doing more to attract and keep them — and it turns out that corporate philanthropy can be an important part of the strategy.
Surveys indicate that millennials’ decision about where to work is highly influenced by a company’s commitment to its community. This generation reports an increasing overlap between the personal and the professional; millennials view their job as part of their identity and want to see their values reflected in their workplace. They are quite philanthropic themselves, so a robust corporate social responsibility program is a great recruiting and retention tool. Generally, consumers are also more likely to purchase goods and services from companies that they know to be supportive of good causes.
Forbes recommends five steps for building a corporate social responsibility program: (1) relate your giving to the nature of your business, (2) use branding and marketing to distinguish your program from others’ efforts, (3) provide your employees and customers with a lot of credible information about your cause, (4) focus on one issue and align several efforts toward advancing it, and (5) partner with issue experts and nonprofits to establish credibility.
The Mackinac Center’s many initiatives work to address a variety of problems facing our state, from advancing property rights and promoting government transparency to reducing regulatory burdens and supporting education choice. We provide timely, nonpolitical and peer-reviewed research and analysis to support our proposals, and direct all our efforts toward making Michigan a more prosperous state and a better place to live and work.
If you are interested in learning more about how your business can invest in this important work, please contact us. We look forward to partnering with you!
