Public Service Activities

April 13, 2006

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Community involvement is a super way to good public relations and free publicity of the best kind. The old saying "you have to give to receive" holds true in business.

Sponsor a Little League or bowling or softball team. Your team will wear your company signs, their families and friends will become your biggest boosters, and you'll get to know a lot of people you'd otherwise never be able to reach.

Donate your time and talent as well as your products or services when the community could benefit from them. You will be repaid a hundred fold in the long run. Participate in service clubs such as Rotary or Lions and the Chamber of Commerce. Offer to be a speaker at schools or senior centers. Donate your goods or services to local schools or churches, to be given away as raffle prizes or silent auction items.

Appropriate non-profit public service events can be targeted for company tie-ins (e.g., an energy drink company sampling participants in an American Heart Association bike, hike, run, walk event). Piggyback your business promotions on community events — such as having a "marathon" sale if the town is having a race day or offering to be a collection point for the food pantry charity drive.

Penguin has published a handy book you may wish to consult called Doing Best by Doing Good, by Steckel and Simons.