Barnhart Crane’s story exemplifies how a company can integrate charitable giving into its corporate culture. This resource provides insights into the owners’ strategic approach to philanthropy, including aligning charitable activities with company values and engaging employees in meaningful ways.
Stewardship & Generosity
Giving with Purpose
SG-03Charitable Giving
Amplify your impact through giving. Develop a strategic approach to your company's charity.
MarkingsIntentional StewardshipServiceGenerosityLove(1 Peter 4:10)
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”
1 Peter 4:10
From the card
Getting Started
- Identify Causes: Align with causes that resonate with your company's values.
- Set Goals: Determine what you aim to achieve through your giving, both in the community and within your company.
- Involve Stakeholders: Engage employees and customers in recommending charities and deciding how to contribute to them.
- Establish Metrics: Track the effectiveness of your contributions and the tangible outcomes they produce.
- Communicate Impact: Share your successes and how your giving aligned with core values to inspire and encourage further giving.
Tips for Success
- Consider matching employee donations to increase participation.
- Create volunteer opportunities for hands-on involvement with chosen charities.
- Clearly define what you stand for to avoid contentious debate over giving to charities that don't align with company values.
Continue exploring
5 resourcesResources
*Toxic Charity*, by Robert D. Lupton, challenges traditional approaches to charitable giving and advocates for more effective, sustainable methods. This resource is essential for understanding the potential pitfalls of charity and how to avoid them by fostering empowerment rather than dependency.
This Charity Navigator article explains cost per outcome as a tool to measure a charity’s cost effectiveness by calculating the expenses required to achieve specific results. It helps donors assess impact, compare organizations, and align giving with both logic and emotion. This metric enhances transparency and guides more confident, impactful donations.
This article from America’s Charities explores how to measure corporate philanthropy, employee giving, volunteering, and social impact effectively. It emphasizes moving from tracking activities and outputs to measuring outcomes like behavior change and community benefits. Key strategies include using proper metrics, visualization tools, and impact narratives to communicate results meaningfully.
This article outlines five steps to align charitable giving with personal values: Define core values, write a personal mission, consider monthly donations for steady impact, measure generosity to track meaningful contributions, and embrace philanthropy as a sustainable practice. This approach fosters purposeful giving, deeper connections, and long-term satisfaction in generosity.
Keep the conversation going
Have a resource to suggest? We’d love to hear it.