Develop Strategic Philanthropy: Understanding the Importance of Socially Responsible Investing

We are liv­ing in an age where the aver­age con­sumer is more social­ly aware and wants to be more respon­si­ble. In turn, con­sumers also expect the brands they buy from to be more social­ly respon­si­ble. The busi­ness land­scape is shift­ing, and social­ly-con­scious invest­ing cou­pled with cause-relat­ed mar­ket­ing is vital for mak­ing respon­si­ble invest­ments and work­ing togeth­er with non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions for a greater cause. 

As a busi­ness own­er, you might be won­der­ing how to get start­ed with social­ly respon­si­ble invest­ing and how it can help your company’s over­all busi­ness goals. In this arti­cle, the team at Rosy Strate­gies com­piled all the nec­es­sary info you need to know about SRI invest­ments, thanks to years of expe­ri­ence in pro­vid­ing excel­lent strate­gic phil­an­thropy ser­vices in Flori­da. 

What Is Strategic Philanthropy?

The best def­i­n­i­tion for this term would be a method of cor­po­rate giv­ing and oth­er phil­an­thropic actions of a com­pa­ny to best fit the over­all goals, mis­sion, and val­ues of the brand. This means that the brand should have a sol­id strat­e­gy for align­ing phil­an­thropic endeav­ors with mar­ket­ing and busi­ness goals for a greater cause.

These social­ly-con­scious invest­ments usu­al­ly involve a part­ner­ship between non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions and stan­dard busi­ness­es that work togeth­er for a char­i­ta­ble cause. In this case, strate­gic phil­an­thropy should enable both the pro­mo­tion of sales for the com­pa­ny while help­ing the char­i­ty and rais­ing aware­ness for both enti­ties, boost­ing their pos­i­tive pub­lic­i­ty in the process.

How Do Responsible Investments Work in Strategic Philanthropy?

SRI invest­ments should be seen as a cru­cial part of every cause-relat­ed mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy. To be hon­est, it’s a bit like give-and-take, and busi­ness­es might not see the pos­i­tive impact of social­ly-con­scious invest­ing right away. 

Here’s an exam­ple that might help. Let’s say that your busi­ness sells fish­ing sup­plies and opts to team up with a non­prof­it that aims to keep the oceans free of pollution.

You make a respon­si­ble invest­ment, i.e., donate resources and mon­ey to the orga­ni­za­tion and encour­age your teams to do at least some vol­un­teer­ing, like join­ing a cleanup action. The aim is to help the cause and do some good. 

At the same time, your cus­tomers will notice that you care about pro­tect­ing the water­ways and will be more like­ly to become more attached to your brand as they can see the phil­an­thropic, “humane” side of your business. 

You should remem­ber that social­ly respon­si­ble invest­ing isn’t always a fly-by-night process, and it takes time. With the right mar­ket­ing approach, you can cre­ate a more loy­al cus­tomer base and bet­ter estab­lish your brand in your industry. 

The Benefits of SRI Investments and Cause-Related Marketing 

When done with the right mar­ket­ing approach, SRI invest­ments can have numer­ous ben­e­fits that can impact your brand, both short-term and in the long run. For example: 

• Shows busi­ness engage­ment in the com­mu­ni­ty: As men­tioned above, most con­sumers are envi­ron­men­tal­ly and social­ly con­scious, mean­ing they care about these issues and want to see cor­po­ra­tions and oth­er busi­ness­es do the same. If your brand shows no signs of this con­scious­ness, you may find that even your most loy­al, social­ly respon­si­ble cus­tomers will flock to oth­er com­pa­nies that do.
• Improve­ment in com­pa­ny morale: Your employ­ees will also feel good about work­ing for a busi­ness that makes respon­si­ble invest­ments and sup­ports a greater cause. They will become more engaged with their work, poten­tial­ly lead­ing to a sub­stan­tial pro­duc­tiv­i­ty boost. 
• Pos­i­tive pub­lic­i­ty: Strate­gic phil­an­thropy will get your voice heard and seen — from social media and news­reels to see­ing your ban­ners dur­ing events. Peo­ple get a chance to learn about your brand and rec­og­nize you as a busi­ness that cares about social and envi­ron­men­tal causes. 
• Direct finan­cial impacts: While it was a huge gam­ble and a mas­sive con­tro­ver­sy for some, Nike man­aged to turn their Col­in Kaeper­nick ad direct­ly into money. 

Developing a Strategy for Making Responsible Investments

There are cas­es when con­sumers see social­ly respon­si­ble invest­ing and cause-relat­ed mar­ket­ing as a “cheap trick” to boost pub­lic­i­ty and make more sales. 

On that end, sales shouldn’t be the end goal of such strate­gies. Instead, SRI invest­ments are indeed for those com­pa­nies who gen­uine­ly want to give back and tru­ly sup­port a cause that aligns with their brand’s values. 

This is why it’s cru­cial that brands devel­op a viable strat­e­gy and cam­paign for SRI invest­ments. The help of an expe­ri­enced mar­ket­ing agency will often go a long way in this, as mar­ket­ing experts know how to do care­ful research and the prepa­ra­tion for a suc­cess­ful campaign. 

As such, here are the most cru­cial aspects of devel­op­ing a sol­id strat­e­gy for phil­an­thropic caus­es and respon­si­ble investments:

Finding a Legitimate Cause

Social­ly-con­scious invest­ing and cause-relat­ed mar­ket­ing should revolve around a legit­i­mate cause that tru­ly makes a dif­fer­ence and is aligned with the vision and mis­sion of your brand. 

On that end, you don’t have to part­ner with a renowned non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion — just research the cre­den­tials of the orga­ni­za­tions you could poten­tial­ly team up with. Go with a legit­i­mate non­prof­it and a legit­i­mate cause to pre­vent wast­ing resources, time, and mon­ey on a project that ends up being a scam. 

The Cause Is Relevant

As men­tioned above, the cause should be rel­e­vant to your brand. If you are sell­ing sport­ing goods, you can always team up with a non­prof­it that helps with, let’s say, get­ting chil­dren involved in sports or bet­ter yet, works to pre­vent child­hood obesity. 

Choos­ing a cause that’s rel­e­vant to your core busi­ness val­ues is essen­tial since it will enable you to help in more than one way (instead of just giv­ing mon­ey, you can donate sport­ing equip­ment if we take the exam­ple above), and you will also appear more legit­i­mate in front of your audience. 

Make an Impact

SRI invest­ments aren’t just about writ­ing mas­sive checks and call­ing it a day. While it will def­i­nite­ly sup­port the cause, it can come off as disin­gen­u­ous and disengaged. 

Apart from mon­e­tary dona­tions, also focus on oth­er ways to give back. Your con­sumers should see your brand mak­ing a dif­fer­ence and active­ly work­ing to make things better. 

You can help with event plan­ning, vol­un­teer work, email cam­paign man­age­ment, donat­ing ser­vices or prod­ucts, or you may also help with cre­at­ing pro­mo mate­ri­als for the cause.

Promote the Cause and Involve Your Audience

To ensure that you can max­i­mize the poten­tial of the work you’re doing with your non­prof­it part­ner, you need to cre­ate an effec­tive ad or social media cam­paign to get the mes­sage out and let peo­ple know about the project. This won’t only make more peo­ple aware of the char­i­ty and your brand, but it might also inspire them to take part in the action. 

If they want, allow them to help. Encour­age them to vol­un­teer, donate, or help in any oth­er way. This way, you will raise aware­ness not just for your brand and the cause but will pro­vide immense help for the non­prof­it as well. 

Do It the Right Way

SRI invest­ments are gen­uine­ly help­ful actions of brands and busi­ness­es who care and want to make a dif­fer­ence. Still, strate­gic phil­an­thropy may have sev­er­al pit­falls, espe­cial­ly if you have lit­tle expe­ri­ence in this field. 

That’s why part­ner­ing up with an expe­ri­enced mar­ket­ing agency can help you cre­ate an effi­cient strat­e­gy that will help your cause-relat­ed mar­ket­ing efforts and ensure that the mes­sage gets out, not just to your cus­tomers but to every­one else who tru­ly cares.

We can and want to help you make a dif­fer­ence. Reach out to us today.