Giving charitably is no more a tradition reserved for only holidays. For either small or large scale businesses, philanthropy is a necessary tool for survival. Now that millennials are valuing companies that are focused on social aspects, success is almost unreachable If you are not sacrificing or giving back to the society. In 2014, $18.45 billion was given by corporate bodies while individual donations amounted $265 billion. Why are companies slow in picking up this new trend?
A Keynote speaker at the New Orleans Entrepreneur Week and The Chief Philanthropy Office at Salesforce Suzanne DiBianca, said “it’s because, simply put, companies need money”. Luckily, DiBianca developed a model that will possibly bring in a new phase of corporate donations and giving. The model lays emphasis on key things that the company has to offer.
In her keynote speech at the New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, DiBianca said, “The real assets in a company are the people that work there, the products that they have, and their ability to advocate for change in policy.”
Tagged the 1-1-1 model, companies are urged to give at least one percent of their equity, product or even time to support the causes that stand in line with their values. DiBianca lead this cause at Salesforce and it has grown into its own company. Salesforce started the Pledge 1% with Rally for Impact, Tides, Atlassian, the community foundation and Efco. And this has grown to become one of the most innovative and even, the fastest growing Philanthropic organization in the world.
As DiBianca says, “Charitable giving is about more than reaching your target audience. It’s not about making waves on social media or attracting that sought-after investor. Giving back is something that benefits the entire community, helping to build an ecosystem that can support everyone from any background. And being genuine is the only way to do that.” She also added, “Don’t do it for the marketing, it needs to be real. Doing philanthropy for marketing purposes isn’t real philanthropy”. One of the most important lessons from Dibianca’s speech was that the very future of businesses lies in philanthropy. And this is because, employees and customers want it, charitable organizations most definitely want it too.
The most important takeaway from DiBianca’s speech was that the future of business is philanthropic. Customers want it, employees want it, and charitable organizations obviously want it. In order to move with the trend and avoid being left behind, get up and start giving.