I’m sure that most of you reading this have your favourite charity(ies) that you personally donate either time or money to support, but many people do not strategically incorporate this into their day to day business.

Charity alignment and marketing is, however, a positive strategy used as part of the “marketing mix” by many larger companies and corporations with the implied benefits of projecting an image of helping people rather than just selling what they sell to create a profit.

Over my time in running an aesthetic clinic for 15 years called MediZen in partnership with Dr David Eccleston we incorporated numerous charitable activities into our calendar and this brief article will summarise some of the benefits that we experienced.

It all started with a team meeting where we decided that, as a local business, we wanted to give something back to our local community and mention these activities to our client base through our regular emails/printed newsletters and social media. This gave us something different to talk about instead of always promoting treatments, and saying how great we were at what we did.

Activities ranged from half marathons and mudrunners, to cake sales and dinner parties. The biggest fundraiser, however, was an annual event that, over the years, developed from an audience of 20 or so people to over 100 of the clinics’ clients and friends.

We called this our annual Spring charity ball, where our staff and customers put on their party dresses and DJ’s and got together for a meal and evening of entertainment – which were generally tribute acts. Donations for raffle prizes and auctions (often generously provided by our client base or other local businesses) linked to ticket sales generated up to £5,000 each year, with the proceeds going to local charities that were nominated by the team.

In addition, 3 years ago we also cast our net a little wider and teamed up with B1G1 to donate a small amount of money for each treatment package that we sold worth over £500 to charitable causes in other countries. Every month the staff voted for a particular cause, and this so-called micro-giving was used for such diverse causes as:

39 blankets to newborn babies in Kenya

34,675 days of access to life-saving clean water for families in Malawi

Fuel to deliver 2,500 meals for the poor in India

26 scarves to orphans in Ukraine

Meals for 37 Ethiopian school children for a month

24 pairs of glasses to those in need in Indonesia

24 trees planted to save Orangutans in Borneo

29 Audio Books to Blind children at a Malaysian Orphanage

16 Clean Water Taps for villages in India

32 Life-saving Mosquito nets to families in Cambodia

31 Women sent on Menstrual training programs in Tanzania

The benefits of these philanthropic efforts were far reaching with the clinic staff enjoying working in a business whose sole focus is not just profit for the owners, alongside allowing the clinic to materially help people external to our business in different ways.

Positive comments from clients on social media linked to several articles in the local press also helped the clinic to develop an image of a company that contributes to its local community.

The clinic entered and won or was shortlisted for numerous Aesthetic industry awards, and also won several local business awards; which are also important for the clinic as these awards ceremonies expose you to local potential customers.

One year we decided to take a slightly different approach and enter the largest business awards in Birmingham for the “Contribution to the Community” category instead of best small business/best team/most creative marketing campaign etc. We were delighted to be shortlisted as the award took place at the International Convention Centre and significantly raised the profile of the clinic amongst the elite of the Birmingham business community.

Looking back on that original decision to hold the odd Macmillan cake sale, contribute to comic relief, or get the team together for a fun run… we could never have envisaged that we would be in a room with several hundred leading companies in Birmingham nominated for the clinics contribution to the local community.

There are material implications regarding staff time and costs involved in running larger events that raise significant amounts of money for charity, however, we did not find that it distracted from the growth of the clinic, or its overall profitability.  I believe that true philanthropy should not have a commercial goal as an end, however, the positive impact on staff morale, implied messaging to potential customers that you do not exist just for profit, and the resulting public relations undoubtedly contributed to the overall success of the clinic.