Why should your organization be community friendly; because being community friendly builds business!  Think about it.  If your business has a good reputation for community service and being a good neighbor, it stands to reason that more people will be willing to try your product or service and perhaps become loyal customers.  Who doesn’t want to do business with a good friend and neighbor rather than the local bully with the worst looking property?

Make being a good neighbor part of your marketing program and measure the results (The Balanced Scorecard, Kaplan and Norton).  See if it produces more customers than the program costs.

Being community friendly doesn’t need to be expensive.  Join your local chamber of commerce; keep your property looking nice; participate in and sponsor community events; and keep the community informed about what your organization is doing.  Meanwhile, continue treating your customers right, providing good value, living out your principles and values, and keeping your promises.  It isn’t a very complicated formula.

If you’re a large organization looking for tax breaks to keep your costs down, look at what you can do to sweeten the pot.  Maybe in addition to meeting the requirements for that tax break you can help rebuild the intersection that will bear the increased traffic to your business.  Maybe you can sponsor training programs to enable people to apply for the new jobs you’re committing to create.  Maybe your new facility can spare some space for a vest-pocket community park.  Perhaps the construction budget could include landscaping funds to present an attractive view from the street, or the parking lot can be set back off the street and wider landscaped sidewalks or bike paths provided in the public right of way.  Perhaps you can limit visual pollution by designing minimal but attractive and effective signage for your business.  Maybe the nature of your organization would allow for a community room to be made available for public use.

Your investment in your community can be small or large.  What’s important is that it can build your business as well as your reputation and your integrity.  It’s another significant part of “how” you do “what” you do, and strengthens your standing as a people centered organization.

Last up on the business philosophy platform, why your organization should be a good steward of the environment.