What Small Businesses Know About Corporate Responsibility

An increasing number of large firms are taking action on big social issues—from education, to gun control, to climate change, even impeachment. This follows, in part, consumers’ growing desire to shop with and support companies that reflect their own values and beliefs. But Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) isn’t limited to big corporations. Small businesses do this, too, and have for a long time.

Small business leaders often build tight bonds with the communities they serve and because of that, their civic engagement is driven by the customers and clients they see every day, not Madison Avenue marketing firms, focus groups, or message testing. In a recent study, 72% of people believe locally-owned businesses were more likely than large companies to be involved in improving their communities, according to Harvard Business Review.

CSR can be a risky undertaking. Approach the wrong cause, and you risk alienating customers and even employees. Devote too many of your resources, and you risk missing your financial goals. So how are small businesses so successfully navigating these waters? Below are my top three takeaways from my time spent with small business owners through the International Franchise Association.

Focus on Needs Close to Home

Small businesses’ clear advantage is that owners see every day what issues matter to their communities. Consider Jimmy Jamshed, the owner of Dallas-area Captain D’s restaurants. After encountering several individuals desperately rummaging through trash cans in search of food, Jamshed began a casual effort to donate some of his restaurant’s food to deliver to impoverished areas of his community. Soon community members and customers joined in, transforming Jamshed’s efforts into a full-fledged charitable program called Food for Homeless. Jamshed remains deeply involved, paying out-of-pocket for meals and visiting a local park almost daily to deliver meals and clothing.

Similarly, Premium Service Brands in Charlottesville, Virginia identified a problem in their community—children with school-provided lunches didn’t have access to healthy meals over the weekend. To change that, the office staff began spending Friday mornings grocery shopping for underserved students at the elementary school down the road. Now, students enrolled in their meal program receive a backpack filled with a weekend’s worth of food for easy-to-make meals containing high nutritional value. The program provides year-round stability to local families, removing a source of stress from students’ lives.

While the small business advantage in identifying challenges is clear, larger corporations can create a more organic, bottom-up strategy for engaging their consumers to know what issues matter to them most. This approach of directing focus to community needs will undoubtedly help companies stay on-brand and authentic.

Local Leadership is Authentic

Local business owners understand that listening to constituents needs before acting is essential to achieving the highest results. For example, when Norm Robertson, the owner of Express Employment in Indiana, organized veterans to speak out for legislation that could help, it didn’t happen in a vacuum. Robertson himself was a veteran, but he also heard regularly from veterans who used his company’s employment services that they needed a better way to move from public service into the private sector. After listening to them, Robertson became an advocate for the Veteran Entrepreneurs Act, which aims to lower up-front costs for veterans wishing to open local businesses and creating a tax credit to cover 25 percent of initial fees.

In some cases, though, engagement goes beyond legislation alone. When Hurricane Michael closed in on Florida last October, Just Between Friends franchisee Karen Miner partnered with city officials to gather and deliver supplies to families affected by the storm. Miner realized the most effective way to distribute items was by collaborating with her locally elected officials to determine which areas were most affected. By working with her local police departments, Minor successfully influenced public efforts and significantly increased the effectiveness of relief for those in need. She utilized her political voice to ensure that those affected by the natural disaster were given the supplies and support essential to recovery.

There are many ways for corporations to engage in their communities, but these examples show that the most successful efforts have a common thread. They require listening, understanding and action, carefully focused on what matters to the communities they serve. These initiatives show consumers that the welfare of your community is part of your business’ value proposition.

Putting People Ahead of Politics

While it’s important for businesses to exercise their influence in the community, the best strategy for most brands is to remain out of politics. Most businesses are not pushing their political views, rather they are raising awareness on the issues that matter to their communities – where the rubber meets the road—and their customers appreciate that.

Catherine Chuck is an owner of several Applebee’s locations across ideologically diverse states. In order to be effective in her philanthropic efforts, Chuck has successfully navigated the varying political leanings of her locations by supporting initiatives that bridge party lines and bring people together rather than divide them. And she has excelled at this, raising over $14.5 million in funds and in-kind support to community nonprofits and organizations including local schools, veterans’ organizations, and for childhood cancer research. By supporting non divisive causes such as these, Chuck has successfully exercised her influence in bringing communities together for the common good.

Even education, which can be a contentious issue, can be made non-political. For example, Sonic Drive-In’s “Limeades for Learning” campaign works with the brand’s franchisees and the community’s teachers to support educational programs and products for students. Through “Limeades for Learning,” customers at local Sonic locations are encouraged to vote online in support of teacher-nominated supplies and educational materials, which Sonic then delivers to the classrooms. This unique partnership combines the community’s priorities with both locally owned and operated stores, as well as corporate engagement.

Key Takeaways

We so often talk about CSR as if it were a new concept, but in reality, small enterprises have toiled in their communities and acted upon local needs for a long time. Small businesses’ CSR and community engagement efforts may never receive the splashy coverage that large corporate donations garner, but they play an instrumental role in the success of communities and, from their local vantage point, have an ability to impact their cities and towns in ways that go beyond just jobs or service creation. Estimates by the Franchising Gives Back program, founded by Roark Capital’s Steve Romaniello to quantify charitable giving from franchises, show that locally owned and operated franchised small businesses have given more than 2.6 million volunteer hours to charitable causes in recent years. With their ability to listen to and understand local needs that matter most to the people they serve, they highlight how businesses across the country can develop relevant and authentic approaches to CSR.