In Good Company

For Cathey Finlon, who owns McClain Finlon Advertising in Denver, there was never a question of whether her company would give back to the community. Besides offering pro bono advertising to local causes, Finlon also encourages her 220 employees to volunteer. In 2005 her company started the McClain Finlon Global Do-Good Grant, through which employees can apply for financial support to do charitable work anywhere in the world.

“I see [corporate giving] as a part of doing business,” says Finlon, a 25-year veteran of the advertising world.

Sara Greene, a 32-year-old human resources recruiter for McClain Finlon, received a grant plus travel expenses and paid time off to spend five weeks volunteering in Romania last summer. Working with a United Kingdom–based group called Projects Abroad, Greene taught art to a group of orphans, led them on hiking trips, and took them on a visit to Dracula’s castle.

This experience affected Greene in many ways, most immediately by putting her life into perspective. “Things that I worried obsessively about, such as doing everything perfectly, seem so trivial after what I saw in Romania,” she says. “I realized that I have a great life.”

Her experience in Romania also helped Greene appreciate her employer even more. “When you work for someone, especially in a privately owned company, you look up to the owner,” says Greene, who voices respect for Finlon’s devotion to giving back.

According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, in 2005 companies like Finlon’s gave $13.8 billion to good causes — an increase of 18.5 percent over the 2004 total. But experts say companies’ reasons for giving back aren’t just about doing the right thing. There is another positive to corporate philanthropy: it can help your business succeed.

“You’ve got to rethink the word philanthropy and think of it more as a company’s social investment,” says Curt Weeden, founder and CEO of the Association of Corporate Contributions Professionals, based outside Charleston, S.C. “If you look at charitable giving as a way of advancing your business objectives, suddenly an executive views these expenditures as a cost of business development and marketing.” The catch, Weeden explains, is there has to be a business rationale attached to the giving. “You need to answer what relevance the support has to the company.”

Whirlpool Corp. took on that question of relevance in 1999, when the Benton Harbor, Mich.–based company partnered with Habitat for Humanity and pledged to provide a new refrigerator and range in every Habitat-built home in North America. So far, Whirlpool has donated appliances to nearly 37,000 Habitat houses, to the tune of about $34 million.

“The home is the centerpiece of where our business is,” says Debbie Ramirez, who oversees Whirlpool’s philanthropic program, Building Blocks, and is the company’s manager of Corporate Commitments. “If we’re going to go out and support something philanthropically, it should start in the home.”

Causes that are near and dear to employees can be relevant to a company’s goals too. In 2005, for example, an employee at the Carlsbad, Calif.–based printing and direct mail company Modern Postcard lost a child in a house fire. As Steve Hoffman, the company’s founder and president, puts it, “Trauma personally affected our employees. That means it’s personal for Modern Postcard.”

One way the company chose to respond was to partner with the San Diego Burn Institute and provide pro bono printing for that organization’s fundraising mailings, along with additional financial support. Employees pitched in as well; they volunteered at a local fire safety expo, educating people on avoiding house fires.

Modern Postcard sales supervisor Mary Ann Kelly explains, “This helped us feel somewhat empowered to help keep others safe.”

Kevin Roach, a partner with PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ Private Company Services in Los Angeles, which advises companies on charitable giving, agrees that keeping employees in mind is key. A survey his company conducted found that more than half of companies that have philanthropy programs use them to attract and retain employees.

That’s the thinking behind Pitney Bowes Inc.’s funding of local literacy and education programs. Not only do such good deeds make the Stamford, Conn.–based mailing technology company’s employees feel proud, says Polly O’Brien Morrow, president and director of community investment, “they also help us to develop our future workforce.”

— Leah Ingram

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Illustration: Scott Menchin