From Vision to Action: A Blueprint for How Small Businesses Can Make Meaningful Social Impact in the World
According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), there are 31.7 million small businesses across the United States, defined as businesses with fewer than 500 employees. That represents 99.9 percent of all companies in the U.S. - and nearly half of all employees work for a company defined as a small business.
Yet, when we hear terms like Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), Corporate Citizenship or any others associated with businesses making a positive impact in the world we generally think of large corporations that have dedicated teams tasked solely with driving their social impact and environmental programming.
But if we’re to achieve a world that is more socially and environmentally just, the ability to operate more responsibly must be accessible to the 99.9 percent categorized as small businesses.
But when it comes to making an impact, small businesses have fewer resources, less funding, too few staff, too little time, and likely more limited subject matter expertise on the issues in question. As a result, it may seem that their ability to create a robust, complex and multi-tiered social impact program is limited, even as we expect more from corporations and their social impact programs.
Given the sheer number of small businesses, however, the role they can play in actually making a measurable impact is substantial.
What can small business operators do to begin their social impact journey with limited resources and reach? Here is a quick blueprint to follow.
Identify initiatives that are the right fit for your small business
Identifying the specific social issues that align with your business’s values and goals will help you determine which causes to support and how to effectively allocate resources to make a positive impact. Here’s how:
Research: Take a step back and think about your company’s goods and services and where the company is uniquely resourced to support. For example, if you’re a grocer, restaurant or work in food production, then perhaps a natural fit is to focus on alleviating food insecurity. Research the social issues related to your industry and consider how they align with your corporate values, mission, and target audience.
Stakeholder Analysis: Conduct a stakeholder analysis to understand the needs and priorities of key stakeholders. This may sound daunting but can be quite straightforward depending on your company’s size. Ask your employees (at all levels) what they think. Ask your customers, your suppliers, and people in your community. What issues are important to them? Having this sort of participatory approach will help you identify which initiatives have the greatest impactful and resonate with the people you work with every day.
Impact/Feasibility Assessment: Lay out some options for what you think you can do in your community then try to understand exactly what type of impact you would have. How big is the impact? How big is the investment in terms of time and money? Are you likely to be successful? Will the actions negatively impact your core business? Taken together, these comprise your impact and feasibility assessment.
Set clear social impact goals and targets for your small business
Once you know where you want to start, you can begin to fine-tune exactly the scope of the impact you think you can make. A good way to do this is to focus on goals that are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Here are some fairly common examples of the types of programs you can attach SMART goals to:
Community service initiatives: Employee volunteers working with local nonprofits to support community needs, such as cleaning up parks, volunteering in food pantries or assisting with events.
Employee volunteer programs: Enabling and empowering employees to take paid time off to volunteer with nonprofits that align with the company's values and goals.
Pro bono services: Providing a set amount of free or discounted goods or services to nonprofits that support a social cause in your local community.
Charitable donations: Making financial contributions to nonprofits that support a social cause or disaster relief efforts.
When setting your goals, also be sure not to do so in a silo. Think about whether you can co-creating your goals in partnership with the same stakeholders you already sought feedback from. And be sure that your goals support, overlap, and reinforce each other as much as possible.
Develop an appropriate social impact budget as a small business
While you may think that, because you are a small business with limited resources, your impact also has to be small. That doesn’t have to be the case. But you may need to prioritize certain initiatives over others and find creative ways to stretch resources.
For example, you may choose to focus on low-cost initiatives that have a high impact. And you could appoint one of your staff - or even form a committee - that will lead these efforts.
Communicating about your small business social impact initiatives
It's important to keep your employees and the community informed about the progress of your work and the impact it is having. Ways to do this include using social media, emails, internal newsletters, existing employee communications channels, fliers/posters in your business, or even one-on-one conversations to communicate with your various audiences.
Constantly improving your small business social impact initiatives
Once you’ve put in place a good program, it’s good to remember your work here isn’t done. It is important to periodically review your initiatives to ensure they continue to meet the goals you have set out and are still having the desired impact. To do this might involve tracking key metrics - such as the number of people reached through a community outreach program - and the resulting impact. If necessary, you can make big or small adjustments to the work so that it becomes even more effective.
Small businesses can make a big impact in their communities
So while you may think that your small business can only make a small impact in your community, once you begin to look a little deeper, you may realize that small businesses play an essential role in making our world a better place.
Are you ready to take this journey? We can help.
The Uplift Agency
Uplift builds strategies, programs, and communication campaigns that advance ESG in workplaces, supply chains and communities.
We know how to navigate the road ahead because we’ve already been down it – 90 percent of our team has led environmental or social programs in corporations or nonprofits. Because ESG is all we do, our services are more comprehensive and integrated than most firms.
