Every company and business has a heart, or soul, or pulse – no matter the word you choose, each has something to offer and can be extended beyond just business practices but into your community as well. When creating your core values, it is important to find initiatives and resources that help spread those within the community in ways that may not be traditional donations but provide real change to those you are trying to impact. Read to learn ways your business can make a difference!
How to increase community initiatives within your organization
When we hear “community initiatives”, the knee-jerk reaction often is to go in the direction of classic donations. While these are incredible and important for companies to partake in, they aren’t always personalized or relevant to the change or impact your company wants to make. A less conventional way to support your community is by looking at career growth and making more opportunities available to those looking to join your industry.
We all have a valuable service to offer or a specialty within our companies, so how can we extend that to others looking to join the industry? At our company, Jelly Digital Marketing & PR, we have a specialty and passion for digital marketing and wanted to share that with others looking to participate in the industry. We looked to education first and built a digital marketing school, Jelly Academy, so we were able to teach people how to fish versus handing them the fish. This approach empowers underserved communities and businesses to thrive on their own and have the tools needed to find success.
Remove Barriers to Education
As mentioned, education is often the place to start and is the bridge for the success of the company so an incredible company initiative is to remove the barriers for other businesses to achieve this economic growth. Scholarships are a great way to do this and make the opportunities more accessible. Through our digital marketing program, Jelly Academy, we have created many scholarships to support students to grow within their career path, such as the Women in Digital Scholarship and BIPOC in Digital Scholarship.
Providing a Service
As previously mentioned, handing over a cheque can be incredible in certain situations but many businesses, especially newer ones, don’t have the means to provide this form of contribution. So the next place to look is what special services or qualities you can provide to extend that “heart” of your community.
An awesome way to achieve this is by sponsoring and hosting galas or community events. This not only helps you support an initiative within your community but it allows you to build upon connections, and get other businesses excited about what you do. This step can open up doors for your business by connecting with other sponsors and key donors which could be potential clients or connections for your business – a win, win situation.
Darian Kovacs is the Indigenous founder of Vancouver based SEO company Jelly Digital Marketing & PR & digital marketing course Jelly Academy. He brings 15 years of marketing experience and a passion for education, and creativity. He is the host of the podcast Marketing News Canada. Darian specializes in mixing PR with digital marketing and has worked with numerous internationally renowned brands on developing and executing their digital marketing and PR strategies. Darian lives in Fort Langley, BC with his wife and four children and likes to mountain bike, watercolour and read in his free time.