Everyone knows that during the holiday season donation requests start coming in and most businesses can’t afford to say yes to every donation request. However, building charitable endeavors into your budget is a great way to ensure that there is money to support your community or your favorite charity.
Use Your Marketing Budget
A great way to contribute to charity is by using your marketing budget. For example, choosing a day of the month when you donate 10-15% of your sales to charity. Each month the sales from that specified day can be donated to different charities in your community. Restaurateurs can expect that the increase in sales on the charity donation days offsets the donations. Furthermore, it’s a great way to help the community instead of spending your budget on hard advertising. It’s a win, win situation. And a great way to increase exposure for your restaurant.
Partner with a local charity
A great way to give back this season is to partner with a charity or local non-profit that has ties to your target consumer. They can host the event at your space, free of charge. They can collect their own donations while the participants dine at your restaurant. When a cause impacts the community it keeps customers engaged and wanting to return your business. The non-profit organizations promote the event via their marketing channels. This type of event is a win-win for everyone; the restaurant gets business and is seen as a community leader, and the nonprofit raises money on their own.
Donate to local food banks
Remember, donations don’t have to be strictly monetary. If you still want to help those less fortunate, but can’t afford a monetary donation, a great way to give back this holiday season is with surplus food. You could donate food to local food banks by finding a local food bank in your community through Feeding America.
Volunteer as a Team
You may be busy planning your team’s holiday party but planning volunteer opportunities can also be a great bonding activity that helps the community. This is a little simpler if you are closed a day a week but even if you organize small groups to go on days off it can be impactful for all involved. Your cooks could volunteer cooking at a food kitchen or your FOH staff could volunteer wrapping presents.
Don’t forget, doing good is always good for business.
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