One of the first things to go during a tough a economy are the "little extras" within your company.  Many businesses, small and large, see community investing as one of those "little extras." 

During weak economic times, Community Investing and CSR policies and activities should NOT be considered a perk.  What these two company standards offer, are a place to hang your hat in community and a method of leveraging your brand when your competition is handing out pink-slips.

One company that is not only honouring their commitments, but has said that they are going to be expanding their company (and hopefully therefore their community connections) is West Jet.  In an interview on last night's news, Sean Durfy, President of West Jet informed the media that during a recession, discount airlines actually fair quite well.  In fact, he feels that they will be looking at expanding their services within North America and Internationally (Mexico). 

Here are five things that you can do to Bullet-Proof Your Company's Social Karma:

1. Honour your previous commitments to the best of your ability
2. Communicate openly with your community partners and identify other ways to leverage your company brand without compromising integrity
3. Share your concerns with your employees - some of them are also committed to the same charities that you have partnered with on a corporate level
4. Review your community investment and CSR policies to ensure that they still align with your company's values.  Make sure you share your findings and encourage feedback from your employees, clients, community partners, shareholders and other interested parties
5. Last, but not least, highlight the important things that you have been doing within community and how they have strengthened your business overall.  By showing how your community engagement has positively impacted your bottom line (staff retention, increased sales, etc.) you can justify the "little extra" that your company has put back into community

What are you doing to strenthen your company's social karma in this economy?  I look forward to hearing your suggestions and sharing them with the rest of the readership.

This is a link to a blog, Non-Profit Communications, written by Kivi Leroux Miller, about what you get for donation.  An interesting experiment in community investing and testing the donor stewardship programs of charities.

http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog/2008/04/30/after-i-give-what-do-i-get/

Enjoy the read!