Original text

Small businesses have a big impact on local communities.

Financially speaking, 75% of small business owners donate an average of 6% of their profits to charitable organizations annually. But besides monetary contributions, what are some other ways that small businesses can give back to their communities? 

To unlock some unique ideas, we asked business leaders and small business owners about the ways their company gives back to the community. 

Here are ten ways small businesses can give back to the community. 

• Offer Your Own Products and Services

   

• Set Aside Marketing Budget for Nonprofits
• Meal Donation
• Small Business Scavenger Hunts 
• Find Your Perfect Partner
• Offer Programs to Small Businesses
• Peer to Peer Connection
• Donate Your First Month’s Subscription Fee
• Involve Your Whole Team 
• Start Local

Offer Your Own Products and Services 

Companies can always look at offering their own products or services as a way to give back to their communities. For example, we have provided RV rentals for communities impacted by natural disasters, as well as RVs for organizations hosting events that align with our mission. If you are a business owner looking to make a positive impact on your community, look no further than what your business provides on a day in, day out basis. 
- Randall Smalley, Cruise America

Set Aside Marketing Budget for Nonprofits

Halo Branded Solutions offers an annual marketing budget for each salesperson to partner with their choice of non-profits, youth organizations, and other local charities. This gives our employees the freedom to donate or subsidize products for organizations they feel compelled to support.
- Candace Cotton, HALO Branded Solutions

Meal Donation

At TechnologyAdvice, we like to use meals to give back to our community. We normally have catered lunches in the office, but during the initial COVID-19 shutdown, we donated over 400 of those meals to frontline health workers to thank them for their service during this difficult time. Additionally, we recently worked with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee and collected over 134 pounds of food in our Nashville office. With the additional monetary contributions from some of our remote team members, we were able to donate over 5,500 meals.
- Jennifer Fulmer, TechnologyAdvice

Small Business Scavenger Hunts 

As a marketing agency that specializes in helping small businesses, giving back to the community is especially important to us. This past Christmas, instead of giving our employees Starbucks or Amazon gift cards, we bought presents from small businesses based in Phoenix. This was a great way to support our clients and favorite small businesses, and stay true to our mission of supporting small businesses.
- Nikitha Lokareddy, Markitors

Find Your Perfect Partner

Reel Paper has partnered with SOIL, a company that transforms waste into useful resources in Haiti. This is a project that is near and dear to my heart and I’m glad that I can give back to my community by providing them with a planet that is more sustainable day by day.
- Derin Oyekan, Reel Paper

Offer Programs to Small Businesses

One thing that we do in our company is to help other small businesses in our industry to grow through our accelerator program. Every year we open our program to WordPress plugin developers with great products and help them improve their marketing reach. We also assist them in other ways. This has a direct impact on a number of employees and also improves the WordPress ecosystem.
- Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

Peer to Peer Connection

The very nature of why our company exists is to reduce human suffering. In order to accomplish that goal, we provide peer-to-peer, human connection to our community members by providing experience, wisdom, community resources, and more. As we grow we continue to find new ways to support our communities.
- Mark Christensen, People & Partnerships

Donate Your First Month’s Subscription Fee

One way my company gives back to the community is by donating to First Book, a charity that provides books and educational resources to children around the world. I have a monthly paper-and-ink newsletter which costs $99 per month. Whenever someone signs up, I donate the first month’s fee to First Book.
- James Pollard, The Advisor Coach LLC

Involve Your Whole Team 

At Resolute, we have an annual United Way campaign where each employee makes a one-time contribution or donates a small amount each pay period. Our team has hit 100% participation in the last six years running. Management offers incentives to donate through giveaways from local companies, tickets to watch the Winnipeg Jets play, and other fun prizes. We chose United Way as they raise a mass amount of funds each year and then distribute to local non-profits, charities, and causes that don’t necessarily have the same opportunities to raise funds themselves. Team members have the option to select which causes they’d like their contribution to go towards.
- Colton De Vos, Resolute TS

Start Local

Eurodenture supports underprivileged students at a local private classical school. Additionally, we volunteer in annual projects that provide disadvantaged members in our local communities with free dental work. We keep our involvement close to home to feel like the impact we are making will truly affect neighbors and friends. 
- Henry Babichenko, DD,  Eurodenture