Authentic strategic philanthropy is based upon the advantages of a much more empowering and abundance-filled set of beliefs.

• The purpose of business is to understand and meet some group's needs, i.e. everyone's needs, including the owner(s), employees, consumers, community, and even the natural environment

• The high level purpose of business is to create and distribute excellent products and services, in a manner which generates profits and abundance for everyone involved.

• Businesses can be powerful models for the larger community. They are able to demonstrate the value of such thin
  The Secret War in the Office - Part Two
  If you want to find out what’s going on in your company just listen carefully what kind of nicknames are used by your employees for the managers. It will tell you a lot about the state of your company and whether your out look is promising.Often the interesting jobs are personally done by the boss while the more boring tasks are delegated. Once the job is done and the result is great the merit of course goes directly to the boss, if not others will be hold responsible.Employees telling their bosses their opinion are often labeled as “troublemakers”. Those getting sick are often label as “lazy” or having personal problems. Never ever it is the environment at work or the disastrous leadership skills
  Strategic philanthropy is a unique and powerful way to combine your company's marketing goals with a your desire to increase the well-being of mankind.

  We call it strategic philanthropy. Two of the more popular names are cause -related marketing or community partnering. No matter what you call it, strategic philanthropy is a positioning that connects your company with a not-for-profit organization or cause. In this way, while you are being helpful and working for the common good in your community, your business is receiving parallel benefits. These benefits include exposure, lead generation, employee retention and increases in performance and productivity. They can even include benefits to your bottom line.

  Basic Philanthropy

  Many businesses already engage in basic forms of philanthropy, such as:

  • Donating gift certificates to a church's silent auction

  • Allowing a high school club to set up a car wash on the company parking lot

  • Contributing coffee for a community event

  • Buying a school yearbook ad

  • Sponsoring the local children's sports team

  No business can afford to say yes to all of the requests they receive for donations. Thus they find themselves saying "yes" to the few and "no" to the many. Creative strategic philanthropy can enable you to say yes, in one form or another, to almost every group who solicits you. (Of course, you can see how this is a distinct marketing advantage.)

  Seven Creative Strategic Philanthropy Ideas

  Here are a few creative strategic philanthropy ideas that have been implemented by our clients:

  • Introduce a special pre-packaged product that community groups can sell these products to their stakeholders and they get a healthy percentage of the margin

  • Create a program where any community service group, school, non-profit, etc. can distribute coupons (i.e. they do your marketing!) so that when their supporters buy at your store (or website) that group gets a percentage of the sales.

  • Help groups to organize fundraisers to be held in your store or facility

  • Offer to partner with a youth education group or school, proposing that a transportable community mural be painted at your location, which later circulates around the community as part of educational efforts

  • Invite groups who have major events in progress to hold a reception at your location, with some kind of value return to them (discounted purchases, a percentage of sales, some gift certificates, etc.)

  • Give groups involved in addressing important local needs free or discounted gift certificates to pass on to their hard working volunteers (you can steer these, in part, to groups tied to your target markets)

  • Partner with respected social action groups, to host a lunch workshop series or community dialog sessions about local needs and issues

  Here's one more idea from business coaching franchise company, Quantum Growth Coaching. Quantum is the primary sponsor and donor of the Cras Tibi Foundation, (http://www.crastibifoundation.com) set up to provide grants to organizations involved in developing nation micro-lending. My partner, Tom Matzen and I have written a book called Earn Twice As Much With Half The Stress. Quantum donate $1 from each sale of the book to Cras Tibi. It's a win-win-win. Quantum gets exposure because of the tie-in with Cras Tibi and microlending, Cras Tibi gets the donation, and the micro-borrowers get to use the money.

  Market Differentiation

  Strategic philanthropy can be useful in distinguishing your business from your competitors, most of who are probably stuck in old "business as usual" paradigms. They likely think the purpose of business is merely to sell things and make money. Such a narrow belief creates all sorts of sad consequences such as:

  • The public's skepticism or distrust of business's self-interest fixation

  • Employees often feeling less than fully engaged or even exploited, thus having little interest in being loyal to the company

  • Employees, and even business owners, feeling like their "real lives"" are separate form their work life.

  • Situational ethics taking the place of foundational moral beliefs.

  • Employees and owners lacking the synergistic and creative skills to achieve high performance and marketing success.

  Authentic strategic philanthropy is based upon the advantages of a much more empowering and abundance-filled set of beliefs.

  • The purpose of business is to understand and meet some group's needs, i.e. everyone's needs, including the owner(s), employees, consumers, community, and even the natural environment

  • The high level purpose of business is to create and distribute excellent products and services, in a manner which generates profits and abundance for everyone involved.

  • Businesses can be powerful models for the larger community. They are able to demonstrate the value of such thing
    Talent Acquisition in 21st Century-A Big Challenge (Part-II)
    In previous Part-1, I mentioned about thew need to talent acquisition, how it is different from recruitment and ways to evolve effective talent acquisition strategy.Talent Acquisition StrategiesBasic StrategiesIf we were really serious about looking for talent, here are some of the things we would be doing as Staffing, Recruiting, talent Management and as human resources professionals:1. We would work harder than we do at identifying high performers: Together with high performers themselves, we could establish some indicators of success or of high performance for each position we recruit for. These could be the number of sales they have made in a month, the number of reports they hav
    ffee for a community event

  • Buying a school yearbook ad

  • Sponsoring the local children's sports team

  No business can afford to say yes to all of the requests they receive for donations. Thus they find themselves saying "yes" to the few and "no" to the many. Creative strategic philanthropy can enable you to say yes, in one form or another, to almost every group who solicits you. (Of course, you can see how this is a distinct marketing advantage.)

  Seven Creative Strategic Philanthropy Ideas

  Here are a few creative strategic philanthropy ideas that have been implemented by our clients:

  • Introduce a special pre-packaged product that community groups can sell these products to their stakeholders and they get a healthy percentage of the margin

  • Create a program where any community service group, school, non-profit, etc. can distribute coupons (i.e. they do your marketing!) so that when their supporters buy at your store (or website) that group gets a percentage of the sales.

  • Help groups to organize fundraisers to be held in your store or facility

  • Offer to partner with a youth education group or school, proposing that a transportable community mural be painted at your location, which later circulates around the community as part of educational efforts

  • Invite groups who have major events in progress to hold a reception at your location, with some kind of value return to them (discounted purchases, a percentage of sales, some gift certificates, etc.)

  • Give groups involved in addressing important local needs free or discounted gift certificates to pass on to their hard working volunteers (you can steer these, in part, to groups tied to your target markets)

  • Partner with respected social action groups, to host a lunch workshop series or community dialog sessions about local needs and issues

  Here's one more idea from business coaching franchise company, Quantum Growth Coaching. Quantum is the primary sponsor and donor of the Cras Tibi Foundation, (http://www.crastibifoundation.com) set up to provide grants to organizations involved in developing nation micro-lending. My partner, Tom Matzen and I have written a book called Earn Twice As Much With Half The Stress. Quantum donate $1 from each sale of the book to Cras Tibi. It's a win-win-win. Quantum gets exposure because of the tie-in with Cras Tibi and microlending, Cras Tibi gets the donation, and the micro-borrowers get to use the money.

  Market Differentiation

  Strategic philanthropy can be useful in distinguishing your business from your competitors, most of who are probably stuck in old "business as usual" paradigms. They likely think the purpose of business is merely to sell things and make money. Such a narrow belief creates all sorts of sad consequences such as:

  • The public's skepticism or distrust of business's self-interest fixation

  • Employees often feeling less than fully engaged or even exploited, thus having little interest in being loyal to the company

  • Employees, and even business owners, feeling like their "real lives"" are separate form their work life.

  • Situational ethics taking the place of foundational moral beliefs.

  • Employees and owners lacking the synergistic and creative skills to achieve high performance and marketing success.

  Authentic strategic philanthropy is based upon the advantages of a much more empowering and abundance-filled set of beliefs.

  • The purpose of business is to understand and meet some group's needs, i.e. everyone's needs, including the owner(s), employees, consumers, community, and even the natural environment

  • The high level purpose of business is to create and distribute excellent products and services, in a manner which generates profits and abundance for everyone involved.

  • Businesses can be powerful models for the larger community. They are able to demonstrate the value of such thin
    Good Marketing Brings Instant Results
    Many marketing consultants say that small business should not get frustrated, angry or irate when their marketing does not bring instant results to their companies. These marketing consultants generally believe that good marketing builds brands and that takes time. Well folks let me tell you why they are wrong.First off good marketing does bring long-term results, no one can debate that, but good marketing should also brings some noticeable instant results right away. And if it does not then there is a problem with your advertising, message or the medium used to deliver it. You see folks, for 27-years I have set up businesses and done so in some 23 states, 450 cities and 110 markets and four nations.
    group gets a percentage of the sales.

  • Help groups to organize fundraisers to be held in your store or facility

  • Offer to partner with a youth education group or school, proposing that a transportable community mural be painted at your location, which later circulates around the community as part of educational efforts

  • Invite groups who have major events in progress to hold a reception at your location, with some kind of value return to them (discounted purchases, a percentage of sales, some gift certificates, etc.)

  • Give groups involved in addressing important local needs free or discounted gift certificates to pass on to their hard working volunteers (you can steer these, in part, to groups tied to your target markets)

  • Partner with respected social action groups, to host a lunch workshop series or community dialog sessions about local needs and issues

  Here's one more idea from business coaching franchise company, Quantum Growth Coaching. Quantum is the primary sponsor and donor of the Cras Tibi Foundation, (http://www.crastibifoundation.com) set up to provide grants to organizations involved in developing nation micro-lending. My partner, Tom Matzen and I have written a book called Earn Twice As Much With Half The Stress. Quantum donate $1 from each sale of the book to Cras Tibi. It's a win-win-win. Quantum gets exposure because of the tie-in with Cras Tibi and microlending, Cras Tibi gets the donation, and the micro-borrowers get to use the money.

  Market Differentiation

  Strategic philanthropy can be useful in distinguishing your business from your competitors, most of who are probably stuck in old "business as usual" paradigms. They likely think the purpose of business is merely to sell things and make money. Such a narrow belief creates all sorts of sad consequences such as:

  • The public's skepticism or distrust of business's self-interest fixation

  • Employees often feeling less than fully engaged or even exploited, thus having little interest in being loyal to the company

  • Employees, and even business owners, feeling like their "real lives"" are separate form their work life.

  • Situational ethics taking the place of foundational moral beliefs.

  • Employees and owners lacking the synergistic and creative skills to achieve high performance and marketing success.

  Authentic strategic philanthropy is based upon the advantages of a much more empowering and abundance-filled set of beliefs.

  • The purpose of business is to understand and meet some group's needs, i.e. everyone's needs, including the owner(s), employees, consumers, community, and even the natural environment

  • The high level purpose of business is to create and distribute excellent products and services, in a manner which generates profits and abundance for everyone involved.

  • Businesses can be powerful models for the larger community. They are able to demonstrate the value of such thin
    Fundraising Basics, 5 Must Knows
    Fundraising takes time and patience. Keeping this in mind from the beginning will help you to run a successful fundraising campaign. Non profit charities are always looking for new ways to fundraise and asking for volunteers to help with the programs. By keeping these 5 Must Knows in mind your volunteers and leaders will stay motivated and focused.When you begin any fundraising campaign make sure your volunteers feel for your cause in there hearts. If you solicit help from just anyone your success will be limited. If on the other hand you find people who really care about your cause and want to see a better future you are well on your way to success.When enlisting help make sure you fully und
    the primary sponsor and donor of the Cras Tibi Foundation, (http://www.crastibifoundation.com) set up to provide grants to organizations involved in developing nation micro-lending. My partner, Tom Matzen and I have written a book called Earn Twice As Much With Half The Stress. Quantum donate $1 from each sale of the book to Cras Tibi. It's a win-win-win. Quantum gets exposure because of the tie-in with Cras Tibi and microlending, Cras Tibi gets the donation, and the micro-borrowers get to use the money.

    Market Differentiation

    Strategic philanthropy can be useful in distinguishing your business from your competitors, most of who are probably stuck in old "business as usual" paradigms. They likely think the purpose of business is merely to sell things and make money. Such a narrow belief creates all sorts of sad consequences such as:

    • The public's skepticism or distrust of business's self-interest fixation

    • Employees often feeling less than fully engaged or even exploited, thus having little interest in being loyal to the company

    • Employees, and even business owners, feeling like their "real lives"" are separate form their work life.

    • Situational ethics taking the place of foundational moral beliefs.

    • Employees and owners lacking the synergistic and creative skills to achieve high performance and marketing success.

    Authentic strategic philanthropy is based upon the advantages of a much more empowering and abundance-filled set of beliefs.

    • The purpose of business is to understand and meet some group's needs, i.e. everyone's needs, including the owner(s), employees, consumers, community, and even the natural environment

    • The high level purpose of business is to create and distribute excellent products and services, in a manner which generates profits and abundance for everyone involved.

    • Businesses can be powerful models for the larger community. They are able to demonstrate the value of such thin
      Processing Recurring Payments: Get Paid in Full by Automating Receivables
      In any business endeavor, an owner may encounter multiple sweaty-palmed experiences. Customers may engage in multi-tiered assaults ranging from vehement criticism of a product or service, censure for (the lack of) customer assistance, objection to time lag for delivering said product or service and the airing of numerous other grievances. Of course, an owner realizes that this comes with the precipitous territory of conducting business. However, it remains a humbling experience when interacting with a vociferous client -- an individual who will let everyone know from friends and relatives to the Better Business Bureau about the perceived shortcomings of the business.Perhaps the most daunting situation af
      ven exploited, thus having little interest in being loyal to the company

    • Employees, and even business owners, feeling like their "real lives"" are separate form their work life.

    • Situational ethics taking the place of foundational moral beliefs.

    • Employees and owners lacking the synergistic and creative skills to achieve high performance and marketing success.

    Authentic strategic philanthropy is based upon the advantages of a much more empowering and abundance-filled set of beliefs.

    • The purpose of business is to understand and meet some group's needs, i.e. everyone's needs, including the owner(s), employees, consumers, community, and even the natural environment

    • The high level purpose of business is to create and distribute excellent products and services, in a manner which generates profits and abundance for everyone involved.

    • Businesses can be powerful models for the larger community. They are able to demonstrate the value of such things as innovation, dedication and responsiveness to customers, risk-taking, process and systems innovations, financial practicalities, and teamwork.

    Strategic philanthropy can be a core element of how you operate your business and see yourself as a entrepreneur. It can functionally help you to refine the values and purpose of your business, in a manner, which not only distinguishes you from your competitors, but also contributes to your bottom line while improving the quality and success of virtually every aspect of your staff, your systems and your overall business.

    (c) Copyright Paul Lemberg. All rights reserved