“We cannot live only for ourselves,” said Herman Melville. “A thousand fibres connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibres, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.”
Whether you own a business or whether you work behind a counter, whether you are actively involved in the community, you are connected to this wellspring of humankind and are among the fibres and our actions come back to us as effects.
I recently had the opportunity to talk about community involvement at the annual meeting of Gateway Healthcare, an organization that is dedicated to helping troubled adults and children. As I prepared my remarks I became increasingly aware that the link to philanthropy for companies was much more tied to the bottom line than I had anticipated. Here’s some of what I said.
The heroes — they are the employees at Gateway and similar organizations — individuals
that could have chosen more lucrative careers in far easier environments, but
instead chose to take on the challenges of each day, enduring the frustrations
and tasting the few successes.
In the few years that I have been writing about Gateway I have been most struck by the stories of the children and young adults with whom I speak. The young lady who went on to Katherine Gibbs, the young man enrolled at CCRI, the unwed mother of 15 who now dares to dream of a career in cosmetology.
The heroes are the board members of Gateway and similar organizations who choose to devote their time to helping shape these organizations.
The heroes are the companies that understand the value of being more than just a profit and loss statement, understanding that a key to profitability is philanthropy.
There appears to be an increasing awareness among business leaders that corporate philanthropy helps rather than hinders the bottom line.
In January 1998 Forbes Magazine’s list of the 100 best companies in America found that high morale and outstanding financial performance are intertwined.
The 61 publicly traded companies on the list, over a 10-year-period, averaged annual returns of 23.4 percent versus 14.8 percent for the Russell 3000. And research suggests that highly motivated employees are up to 127 percent more productive than average motivated employees.
Employees become highly motivated when their companies are socially responsible. A survey at Polaroid and Gillette found that 84 percent of employees believe a company’s image in the community is important and those believing the company has a strong community presence are more loyal to that company.
A study of 2,100 business students found that nearly 80 percent of them believe a company has to consider the impact it has on society, and 54 percent said they’d accept a lower salary to work in a very socially responsible company.
And some literature suggests that the number one principle for business success in the 21st century will include who you are and what you stand for, just as much as much as what you sell.
Doug Walker, CEO of WQR, a Seattle software development company wrote in Washington CEO in 1997 how important philanthropy was for his startup company.
“From the beginning we considered ourselves stakeholders in the community and we committed ourselves to taking the long view of what it means to be a viable business. We knew it was our responsibility to make the Northwest a great place to live.
“Some people are astonished that WQR, from day one, allotted a certain amount of money to give back to the community. But actually, I’m astonished that more startups don’t realize both the obligation to and the benefits of contributing to the community that must be there to sustain a business.
“The profile of a classic high tech startup is to take other people’s money (venture capital) and to have a short make-or-break horizon. The point at which these firms start to think about their obligation to anything beyond their bottom line and their investors is always somewhere beyond that limited horizon. Frankly, I’m skeptical when I hear about intentions of giving back to the community at some point in the future.
“Every business from the beginning trades in the quality of life its community offers.”
