Doing Well by Doing Good, Part II

Doing Well by Doing Good, Part II

At Return Path, we feel strongly that companies can and should make the world a better place in several different ways.  Certainly, many companies' core businesses do that -- just look at all the breakthroughs in medicine and social services over the years brought to market by private enterprises, including my friend Raj Vinnakota, who I wrote about in part I of this series last year.  But many companies, including Return Path, aren't inherently "save the world" in nature (although some people in online marketing would have you believe that we are!), and those companies can still make a difference in the world in a few ways:

1. Organize projects in the local community for their employees to help out/work at

2. Allow employees to take a limited amount of paid time off for community service work

3. Provide matching gift programs so employees' donations are enhanced by the company

4. Donate money or services to charitable organizations they believe in

As a relatively small company, we have to pick our battles here.  We currently have a policy for #2 above that allows employees 3 days per year of paid time off for community service work.  And today, we are announcing a comprehensive program for #4 above in association with the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis.  This choice was inspired by our long-time employee and friend Sophie Miller, who was diagnosed almost two years ago now with MS (and is doing great)!

Read the details of what we're doing with Accelerated Cure in the full press release here.

Comments

[Josef Katz]

Matt,

Couldn't agree more. If you or anyone else is interested in this topic you might be interested in reading this book:
Making Money While Making a Difference: How to Profit with a Nonprofit Partner
by Richard Steckel (Editor), Jeffrey Simons, Norman Tanen, Robin Simons
Jeff Simons is a friend of mine. If you are interested in talking more about this subject let me know and I will make the introduction.

Josef