Business Giving Back:
Pet Biz Creatives Pledge
The first steps towards giving back from your business and sharing some love.
Erin
Co-Founder & Creative Director
Great pet businesses are built on love. On the love we have for our special animal companions. On improving the lives of pets and their owners. On building communities with a shared passion for everything furry, scaly and feathery.
Pet Biz Creatives was founded on a similar belief. As well as working with brands that share our love of pets – providing them with the products/services for happy, healthy fulfilling lives – we want to support a movement where every animal (and their humans too) have the safety, security and nurture they deserve. A life of warmth, comfort and oodles of affection.
We believe that no animal or human should be left outside in the cold. Or should have to suffer from hunger, neglect or violence. Whether two-legged, four-legged or no-legged (here’s looking at you, our slithery snakey friends), everyone deserves to live a full, fulfilling life.
The Pet Biz Creatives Pledge is our way to help achieve exactly that. To take this vision for our business’ impact further and put it into tangible action, by donating 1% of our revenue to causes close to our heart.
You can read the Pet Biz Creatives Pledge here.
Part of our promise is to help guide other pet-repeneurs to give back too, so we can all do our little bit to change the impact business has on the world.
We will be sharing our journey with you along the way, revealing the obstacles or challenges we encounter and the solutions we put in place to overcome them.
But to start with, you might be asking: why is donating good for business?
Why Should Business Give Back?
Here are just some of the reasons giving back can help your business:
- Morale – company morale is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal. Offering social impact to your employees has been shown to boost wellbeing in the workplace.
- Market – recent studies suggest that social responsibility is one of the most important factors for modern customers. Brands wishing to stay evergreen and resonate with a younger audience should connect with this drive.
- Community – choosing and supporting causes close to home can have an incredible impact, especially if you’re able to witness the difference firsthand. For example, offering dog walking at your local shelter is a way to meet and interact with the lives you are changing, to witness the magic of positive change.
- Tax Deduction – of course, this shouldn’t be the main driver, but it’s an added benefit that shouldn’t be ignored. Tax relief and rewards could be offered by your government offered for helping a charity in need.
How To Give Back From Your Pet Business
There are many ways to pledge, meaning you can choose an option that is sustainable or appropriate for your business:
- Equity – Company or personal equity is a way to give that works if you are not yet seeing those future profits. Personal equity pledges are super easy to implement as you often do not require outside approval. Companies like Pledge 1% can help you with the paperwork and application of this model.
- Time – The easiest way to start. This could be simply hands-on volunteering a local shelter, offering your specialised skills to a pet charity, learning how to use your own pets for therapy, or even fostering needy pets in your office!
- Product – You could offer the inventory you have crafted and curated to help those in need. Whether it’s for food for homeless dogs, grooming products to your local shelter or photography for prospective adoptees.
- Revenue – There are a few different ways to donate revenue. Here at The Growth Genies, we chose 1% of our revenue but if that isn’t the right amount for you, then you can change this to suit your needs and size.
- One-off Donations – If you’d rather donate a lump sum, but want it to count. One-off donations can also be easier to organise and calculate.
How To Choose A Cause
Next, it’s time to find causes that match up with you. Here are some of the first steps you can take:
Define your desired outcome – What kind of impact do you want to make? Do you want to fund research or support direct action? This may also feed into the kind of donation you have chosen to offer above.
Find a focus – Supporting a cause with the same focus as your business can be a great way to offer your services to those you care about most. We are finalising our causes, but seeing as most of our team are dog owners, and much of our work involves canines of all shapes and sizes, we want to help and support them in the best way possible.
Include your staff – Ask your employees to suggest one each cause each, or spend a few hours together exploring different options. Perhaps there’s a common cause that has affected many of your staff personally? We recommend using local causes where possible so that your donations directly link to your daily work. This way the benefits can be felt and seen by all.
- Do a little research – As well as supporting social causes that are well managed, make the most of your support and meet your desired outcome, it’s important to work out if you are right for the charity too. For instance, if you are offering digital marketing to help a well-established cause which already boasts a strong online presence, it might not be that useful! The level of research you do is personal, but don’t skip this step. It will help you streamline the process.
- Approach the cause – Whether you choose to do this through an organisation, like B1G1, or personally is up to you. This may depend on the size or locale of the cause, and what their policies are. So best to chat to them about your goals and wishes, but bear in mind they might have a different idea of how you can help them in the best way possible.
- Spread the word – By offering an insight into how we are incorporating the Genie Pledge, we hope to inspire other businesses to take on the challenge too. So share your steps and your news, you might just be inspiring others to start their own pledge.
We’ll keep you posted on how this process goes, the speedbumps we overcome on the way and keep providing further information to help you join in the pledge! So stay tuned on how we plan to make one tail wag a little more everyday.