Why Community Engagment?

For me building a business has as much to do with what values and benefits you offer your clients when developing relationships as the benefit you offer your community as a result of your presence in the business community. There is a lot of buzz in the media to include community engagment as part of ones marketing campaign. The idea is to show how the company is a stakeholder in global or local community efforts that reflect their “social consensus” or define their brand.  

Growing up a home where my mom volunteered it was not unlikely that as a business owner I'd want to be involved in community projects. In fact, I've been involved in so many groups over the years that my husband jokes my volunteerism is like having an additional member of the family at any given time. Business owners are approached consistently for donations and unfortunately can not afford to fund all requests for sponsorships, donations and in kind services because, they have to stay in business. Aligning charity and non profit work with programs and organizations that have a similar underlying cause make it easier for a small business to define how and when they can give.  

For Promotional Partners, Inc. our donations of time, money and resources are related directly to our local community or in some form for kids/education. As a business owner if you are looking for a way to get involved in one particular type of need in the community local civic groups, churches and public schools are a great place to start. Many of these groups can provide you a place to start volunteering your time with an organization that has a structure in place to make it easy to participate and defined goals for maximum impact of your resources whether those be time or money.  

Time has become the currency of many small business owners as they approach how to invest thier resources into the community. At a recent rotary meeting, I commented the daily chaos and rapid pace of my industry require a different pace to provide balance. One on one interaction with individuals in programs where I volunteers help keep me grounded to what is really important in life.

 

Olivia Scott, owner Promotional Partners