It’s hard not to notice all of the mail I get at this time of the year from charities asking me to remember them in my charitable giving for the year. . . . . I’m guessing that you probably give through your individual status, but have you ever thought of having a program for charitable giving through your business”

 

I’m probably like a lot of people and have my favorite charitable organizations that I prefer to donate funds to. . . For instance, I’ve got personal reasons to give to my church, the Lillehei Heart Institute at the University of Minnesota, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, and Samaritan’s Purse among others.

 

The real negative of my list, however, is that as an individual I’m just not aware of who needs a boost and, quite frankly, of all the different organizations that could be helped. . . .It’s simply impossible for one person to know of all the needs and organizations that could use some financial help, even in their own community.

 

Yet, especially in a small community like I was in, when the small group I worked with at the funeral home discussed things we realized that there were lots of needs in our community that could use a boost.  Because of that, our funeral home put together a community giving platform based on our revenues and our employees.

 

In about 1990, and for the next 25 or so years when I owned the funeral home, the business allocated 1% of all revenue be directed to charitable causes.  And, because I couldn’t be expected to know all the needs of the community we involved all of the full-time employees of the funeral home in our decision making.

 

Let’s just say that on average we did about $2 million in revenue and had eight full-time employees.  That would come out to $2,500 per employee and we asked each employee to pick out one charity in our community to have that $2,500 donation sent to from the funeral home business in the employees name.

 

We would just send a check and letter explaining our program to the recipient charity and which employee had requested the donation be directed to that charity.  We also asked for no publicity.  It turned out to be a Win-Win-Win situation for everyone involved.  The charity benefited from a cash donation, our employees always felt good about being able to give to a charity that they cared about and, quite frankly, word always got out in the recipient organization that the donation came from the funeral home so we got some benefit also.

 

One thing that I remember from that program is that we always got a “Thank You” letter from the recipient organizations and in many cases a note that the unsolicited and unexpected donation served some desperate “need” of the organization at that time.  As good as that made me feel it also made our employees feel good and understand that some of the “extra-efforts” they put in their service to families paid off not just in wages to employees or profits to the owners, but in the sense of helping our greater community as well.

 

I’m hard-pressed to think of any program or act that I instituted in my time as a leader of any organization that was so well-received as what we called our “Christian Giving Program”.  Our employees were like any others — they were concerned about wages, call schedules, health insurance, and time off. . . . . . .but at the end of the day they were really excited about “Giving” much more than “Receiving”. . . . .

 

And, I count myself blessed to have been able to work my entire career with those type of people. . . . .

 

During this holiday season, I challenge all readers to think of those less fortunate than ourselves.

 

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”  Robert Louis Stevenson

 

Related — There is a bank in my community that has taken their “Pay it Forward” program to a whole new level of community giving each year and, in doing so, utilize their full staff to help. . . Pay it Forward

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• DIY funeral:  How does it work and could it save you money?  RNZ (New Zealand)
• 8 reasons cremation is the most cost effective way to say good-bye.  Rollingout
• Traditional elements still important as funeral industry changes.  Voxy (New Zealand)
• Baldwin Brothers Funeral and Cremation Society open new location in Tarpon Springs.  PR Newswire

 

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”