The holidays are rapidly approaching --the giveaway is the decorations that are going up in stores around my neighborhood, and I'm almost positive that this year they began appearing prior to Columbus Day.
For healthcare companies like yours and mine, this idea of giving_or as the accounting department calls it corporate philanthropy --is a mixed bag of benefits and pitfalls.
If we do it right, though, giving back to the communities in which we do business can pay off in unlimited ways. Take a look at the numbers. This year The Chronicle of Philanthropy, a Washington, D.C.-based weekly, reported that U.S. companies allocated $7 billion to philanthropies in 1995.
That's five percent of the total $144 billion classified as gifts last year in America. Another 7 percent, or $10 billion, came from foundations, many of which have been started by corporations.
So as businesspeople, we have a good legacy of giving. Many of you may even work for non-profit healthcare and human services organizations that in 1995 were on the receiving end of $24 billion in gifts, 17 percent of the total.
So let's look at why we give and what we may expect as a return on our investment.
Certainly, there are those companies that make charitable contributions according to the personal interests of their president or CEO. While opera or saving the wild egret may not be your cup of tea, it is your job to support the company's interests. But when you get to take charge of how your company spends its philanthropy dollars, consider some trends we're seeing:
First and foremost, companies in the 90s are by-and-large giving to those causes that in some way are akin to the donor's business agenda. For example, one local company's human resource department was growing concerned about the lack of qualified job candidates with good writing skills, as well as basic math ability. Their solution? To give corporate dollars to local literacy programs, to provide company volunteers to tutor students at risk, and to reward high-achievers with college scholarships. The first graduates are just beginning to trickle in from the four-year-old program. And that's a good start.
As healthcare marketers, you may steer your organizations toward supporting a local health sciences magnet school. Or, as one local managed care company did, you might pay for a childhood immunization program that gives every disadvantaged child in the city a chance for wellness. Supporting wellness underscores one of the chief missions of managed care.
Another trend is toward cause-related marketing. You're probably already doing this by sending volunteers to help with mini-marathon's, walk-a-thon's, and bike races benefiting research in cancer, arthritis, cardiac disease, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, diabetes_the list goes on and on.
For every cause, there are a myriad of opportunities for giving and volunteering. Just choose your venue and don't spread your dollars and manpower too thinly.
Current causes receiving primary support in communities, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, include economic development through job training and job creation, education at all levels and crime prevention.
Look at your company's contributions as a true investment so that your dollars are benefiting the community in areas that you want to see developed. For instance, if your hospital is having difficulty in physician recruitment because the community is perceived as having few cultural advantages, you may want to look at supporting the arts. Finally, because we've come to live with economic uncertainty in market conditions, there is a trend toward companies making a singular annual commitment.
This commitment may cover several community needs, but it is made at one time rather than being available on demand throughout the year.
Jim Carlough is vice president of sales and marketing at MDB Information Network, a Dallas-based provider of capital equipment and information systems purchasing analysis. He can be reached at 800/928-1000.