10 Ways to make an impact

1. Identify a charity or nonprofit that has a natural relationship or association with your business, your personal interests or your target customers and brainstorm with their leadership on innovative ideas for partnership.

2. Ask your employees what causes or organizations they support or would like to support, and get their input on ways to get involved.

3. Donate merchandise to a fund-raiser auction, either for a local organization or for an online charity auction. Currently, 47 Michigan nonprofits have registered with Missionfish.org—a nonprofit service of the Points of Light Foundation—to partner with in-kind donors for online charity auctions.

4. Sponsor a cause-related event in your community, such as a 5K run/walk, and get your logo on the backs of thousands of t-shirts.

5. Partner with a nonprofit to sell simple tokens of donation. For example, for a $1 donation to Senior Meals on Wheels, customers at Swift Printing and McDonalds could put their names on paper wheels, which were then displayed prominently in the restaurant or store.

6. Advertise on a cause-related or charity website, such as iGive.com or thehungersite.com. The money funds worthy causes, and the site’s owners claim that sponsors see much higher-than-average click-through rates (the rate at which viewers click on the sponsor tile to go to the store’s website).

7. Encourage your employees to volunteer as a group (wearing company t-shirts or hats) to work at a blood drive, soup kitchen or any event they suggest.

8. Donate your time and energy: coach a team, work with a youth center or bring your talents to an organization that can use them. Many knitting stores contribute hats, handmade by both staff and customers, to Caps For Kids, a nonprofit organization that provides hats to needy children.

9. Donate a portion of your profits, either for a specific day or on a specific kind of merchandise—to a nonprofit. Publicize the event widely with a press release as well as in your store.

10. Choose merchandise based on its cause-related appeal to your target customers and market it as such. Fair-trade coffee sells well at stores whose clientele tends to be concerned with the environment. Hemp Goods, Etc. in Grand Rapids sells only “responsibly manufactured” merchandise and offers detailed information on suppliers and their impact on the environment and local culture.