Do you have a charity strategy?

Its a constant issue to give the details to clients and alliances of your point of difference, and there are many ways to convey this. One thing that many corporates are taking on is Charity. Whether this is motivated by PR or an honest desire to make our world a better place depends on the organisation and the marketing department.

I believe that by being in business, you have a corporate responsibilty to make a change in the world around you. By implementing a charity strategy, you have brought your business into moral ground that can not only gains ground with clients, but gives you and your staff a 'higher reason' for doing the work you do. By building a charity strategy into our business, it motivated our staff and clients by being part of a greater cause. In our case it's Watoto children's charity, which is based in Uganda.

Be careful though, on which charity you choose. Do your research into the charity and make an effor to ask the organisation for a phone interview on who they are, what they do, and what they stand for. Tell them what you are looking at doing, as they will be more than happy to accomodate.

By putting a charity strategy in place, you may want to have a specific percentage or amount that will be given to the chosen charity. With Mortgage Shield, we've committed at least 5% of annual premiums to be given to Watoto from Mortgage Shield applications. The reason we've done this is that we have a committed amount for a specified product. Our staff and clients know exactly where we stand on charity. Now, the reasons behind our committment to Watoto aren't for PR purposes because we've dealt with them for many years prior. Our main objective for letting others know of our alliance is to generate interest for Watoto from other businesses, but as a side issue we've had many people relay their appreciation of what we are doing.

No matter how small the contributions you make, it doesn't matter. We can't do everyting, but we must do something. If everyone would do something small, the world would be a better place.

If you would like to find out more about Watoto, please visit www.Watoto.com