You invest in the market, in local businesses, in your employees. But what about the community? So often, when we think about philanthropy, our minds go to charity. We are giving back to the community out of the kindness of our hearts. It feels good, it looks good, it’s the right thing to do. We often forget about the benefit to us. Not the psychological benefits we personally gain from writing a check or attending a gala. I’m talking about the return on investment for those dollars and that time you put in.

The nonprofit world doesn’t do a great job of helping you think this way. Development directors tap into that feel good side of giving. They send you a picture and a story of the kid you helped, you get the annual report stating how many people you helped feed, and if you just gave x number of additional dollars, we can do more. And you do it, so the cycle continues.

I am asking you to step back from that thinking and apply your business brain to this. I want you to think about your dollars and time that you give to various causes and nonprofits as an investment in solving that social issue or helping that group of people have a better life. Now we don’t have a great way to measure this (stay tuned for more on that), but we can generalize. When we give to a community or a cause, we are working to improve the world we live in. When we improve the world we live in, our lives get better in some way, and our business does too. So when you give, you are investing in that future world, and you should expect a return on that investment. You wouldn’t invest in a startup, for example, and just forget about it. You want to know how they are doing, what kind of progress they have made, projections for the future, etc. You should think the same for your community investment. Don’t settle for a picture of the kid you helped (though very cute, and effective) or the number of people you fed. Start asking “what happened next?” Start asking about outcome, rather than outputs. Start finding out what your money and time does to actually improve the world we live in.

This all goes back to vision. When you vision the future, what does your community look like? How do we get from where we are now to that vision, and what can you contribute to make it happen? When you do that, you are thinking as a community investor, not a charitable giver. The ultimate goal is to no longer need to give to that cause, because the problem is eliminated. And if the work you support is not striving for that end, you need to re-strategize.

This is even more crucial for corporate philanthropy. If you are simply giving away a bunch of money and time, without looking at how that money and time is going impact our future world, you are wasting money and time. We can solve that together with strategic philanthropy. If you are ready to invest in the community, call me and we will make it happen.