The general thought process behind corporate philanthropy is that philanthropy=charity=public relations=more business. Look at us, we built a house for a homeless family,collected canned food at Christmas, and gave $10,000 to the animal shelter, be our client, work for us, etc. Very few businesses think about the social and economic gain that results from actual philanthropy. I’m not talking about writing a few checks and manning the food kitchen for a night (and, by all means, keep doing these things), I’m talking about investing in community. I’m talking about playing the long game.

This is a hard sell to most people (particularly politicians) because people want results NOW. People operate on fairly short time cycles (school years, political term,etc.). But businesses already think long term when business planning. It’s time they  think long term about philanthropy and how they can reap the benefits of good community investment.

If we uplift an entire society/community, everybody wins, including corporations. Most companies compete for clients. What if companies worked to increase the number of clients that exist? We do this by creating communities that are affluent enough to participate in capitalism. Companies need to use their unique position of power and wealth to do that, and not because it will get them media attention now, it probably won’t, but because they will win big in the long run. Businesses are tax payers, job creators, and community builders(literally). Leveraging this power to ask important questions, to support equity-building projects, and to build policy in which community thrives, will ultimately create demand, and improve lives simultaneously. It’s truly a win-win.