Giving Now Will Pay Off Later
Editor's note: Kevin A. Trapani is president and chief executive of The Redwoods Group, a Morrisville insurance company. John Replogle is president and CEO of Burt's Bees, a natural cosmetics company based in Durham.
Business in the Triangle has been growing rapidly for years. But while we're recognized as a great place to build a career and a life, when it comes to giving back to our community, the Triangle lags behind Charlotte, the Triad and the rest of North Carolina.
In large part, business has the opportunity and responsibility to fix this in order to thrive, and quite frankly, to survive.
In these trying times, our defensive instinct tells us to protect ourselves first by spending less and then by giving less. Yet, these are the times our community needs the most support.
As individuals, families and organizations, we have the power to make a piece of this world a better place. Let us start at home. Now is not the time to hunker down, now is the time to lift ourselves up and, in so doing, lift those around us.
The giving gap in the Triangle is described in a report from the UNC Program on Public Life. The Triangle has a relatively shallow base of corporate and organized philanthropic assets. The Research Triangle has evolved into a distinctive metropolitan region with many small- to moderate-sized high-tech and entrepreneurial ventures, but few big businesses or corporate headquarters.
Therefore, unlike older metropolitan regions, the Triangle does not have a strong industrial or corporate base with a history of philanthropic engagement. Our region's nonprofits receive more in external grants than they do funds from within the community.
This is a lopsided model of consumption that will ultimately erode the future success of our community and our businesses.
In response to this need, Triangle Community Foundation developed Triangle Gives Back, an online and offline initiative with a bottom line message we fully endorse: United, we will thrive as a self-sustaining community.
With the mission of TGB -- to build a giving community -- the principles of business remain. Just as we honor contracts that bind us to business partners and understand our fiduciary duty to shareholders, we should recognize and support the social contract that extends to our neighbors.
Our businesses are only as good as the community around us and as the private sector leaders of our community, we have the responsibility to drive social change. A self-sustaining community model will help the Triangle not only better the lives of its own, it will ultimately help draw and attract top talent and business.
The answers aren't hard to calculate, and the action required is well within our abilities.
Success in business depends on attracting smart, spirited, can-do people. This breed, by and large, is attracted to vibrant, inclusive communities and to companies with a zealous sense of mission. A mission not only to profit -- although that is essential -- but also to make a difference.
Businesses that include philanthropic endeavors in their culture also inject an extra dose of motivation and satisfaction into the daily lives of their employees. In turn, those employees are likely to stay at the company and vigorously contribute.
At Burt's Bees that means living by what we call The Greater Good -- operating our business with a focus on the quality of our products, respect for the environment and care for our employees and communities. It's our culture and it infiltrates everything we do -- inspiring teamwork, innovative thinking and responsible behaviors across the organization.
We've established a corporate foundation to support like-minded charities and connect our cultural mission with our community. Locally, we've partnered with Habitat for Humanity of Durham to build green homes and the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences to organize an educational Earth Day celebration in Raleigh. Both involve a well-rounded approach to giving that includes a financial commitment, but more importantly provides opportunities for employees to meaningfully engage and impact our community.
At The Redwoods Group, we serve the community in ways that reinforce our collective understanding that we are a small part of a much larger community. Each of our employees serves at least 40 hours of business time each year doing good work all across the globe -- mentoring in a classroom, building trails in the mountains, or, as was recently the case, constructing Habitat for Humanity homes in Zambia.
Becoming more enlightened citizens of the world makes our folks more humble and, frankly, more mature. They are better able to cope with the changing demands of home and marketplace and they are more appreciative of the great blessings we all enjoy.
With razor sharp focus, you can improve your organization's collective understanding of what you do through a giving commitment.
At a time when the world is questioning, quite appropriately, the role and soul of business, we challenge our fellow business leaders to step up to the pressing needs of our community.
Triangle Gives Back makes it pretty simple: just log on to the Web site ( ), create a profile of your organization's interests and connect with nonprofits that fit the bill.
Even more importantly, act.
The Web site is the first step down a long path to corporate social responsibility and the rewards to be reaped by your community and your business.
They can only begin once you commit fully to your community. Regardless of your organization's financial success. There is no better time than now to take that next step to volunteer time, organize a community project with your team or match their contributions dollar for dollar. The time is now.
