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Small Businesses Contributing to Charity: Are Tax Deductions the Only Advantage? Introduction
“Despite significant progress made in some developing countries, almost half the current world population continues to live in poverty. The world population today stands at about 6.6 billion people and is expected to grow to at least 9.2 billion by the year 2050” (Leisinger, 2007). Giving to non-profit organizations not only helps United States citizens, but people all over the world. Without individuals, large corporations, and small businesses donating to nonprofit organizations the poverty population will only increase.
What is a Small Business?
“To be considered a small business on average the company has to have no more than 500 employees, and the most any small business can have is 1,500 employees (U. S. Small Business Administration, 2014).” When people think about small businesses, they think of the mom and pop stores within their community. However, small businesses are the majority of whom customers give their business. “According to the United States Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Advocacy, 99.7 percent of all U.S. firms are small businesses (Cooper, 2012).”
What is a Nonprofit Organization?
A non-profit organization is an organization whose efforts are driven to generate a profit for a chosen cause. Non-profit organizations can be classified into five central categories: trade associations, charitable organizations, social clubs, government groups, and political groups” (Starting a Non-Profit Organization).
How much is Donated to Nonprofit Organizations Annually?
A study done in the year 2013 reveals that approximately 316.23 billion dollars were donated to nonprofit organizations. Corporations were only six percent of that 316.23 billion dollars. FIGURE 1 shows this information.

Figure 1 FIGURE 1. This figure illustrates how much money was donated and who donated what is 2012.

Different Types of Nonprofit Organizations
When trying to find a nonprofit organization to donate to, it is smart to make sure to choose a reputable organization that allows for tax write-offs. Finding organizations that allows tax write-offs are very beneficial to the company because it allows for economic benefit. Charity Navigator is a website that can help individuals or businesses when choosing a non-profit to donate to. Obtaining this list is very straightforward; just type http://www.charitynavigator.org/ into a web browser. Listed below are a few examples of reputable non-profit organizations.
• American Cancer Society
• American Red Cross
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure
• Wounded Warrior Project
• American Foundation for Children with AIDS
• Humane Society
• Children’s Miracle Network
• Lions Club

Why Do People Donate?
When looking through a psychological view at why people donate the answer is simple, people want to feel as if they are making a difference. People donate because it gives them a sense of appreciativeness for their lives. When looking at this from a social status point of view people donate because it makes them look good. Some people donate because of their religious beliefs. It is not uncommon for church members to give ten percent of their salary to their church. Other people donate because they feel that it is good for business.

Benefits of Giving to a Nonprofit Organization
When listing the benefits of donating to a non-profit organization, tax write offs are just the beginning. A great benefit to donating to nonprofit organizations is that companies can use philanthropic actions as a marketing strategy (Klein, 2006). “A 2010 study done by Cone Communications revealed that 85 percent of consumers have a better outlook on businesses that give back to a charity they care about. 90% of consumers want companies to tell them the ways they are supporting causes. Put another way: More than 278 million people in the U.S. want to know what a company is doing to benefit the cause (Cone Cause Evolution Study, 2010)”. Donating to organizations gives a company the opportunity to promote itself as caring individuals in the community. Having this reputation will appeal to customers, and intern can help boost sales and the company’s reputation. “A recent survey of global C-suite executives revealed that 84% believe that the society expects businesses to take a more active role in environmental, social, and political issues than it did five years ago” (Savitz, 2012). Donating to a needy cause also shows the company’s employees that they care, which can be a great way to build a fellowship among workers and boost morale. An excellent way to keep company employees involved in the business’s philanthropy is to set up a way for employees to have donations to the companies chosen charity to be automatically deducted from their pay. Deducting charitable donations from an employee's pay is a excellent way to encourage them to be philanthropic through the company (Bana, 2003). There are a lot of great benefits to donating to nonprofit organizations: using it as a marketing strategy, fellowship within the workplace, it is high moral for the company, and having the opportunity to make the community a better place are all good reasons to donate.

Ways to Donate One great way to donate to a non-profit organization and still attract business is to participate in a profit share. This philanthropic activity is where a company gives a percentage of its profits that day to a particular nonprofit organization. A profit share is used most commonly in a restaurant type business and is a very common philanthropy event used within sororities and fraternities. An alternative to profit shares is to participate in an event where the company can match funds and donate the money to a non-profit organization. A company can promise to match the amount of money it makes that day and donate it to a nonprofit organization. Another great way to donate is to sponsor a philanthropic event. Companies can do this by buying a banner that promotes their business for a fundraising event. Buying a banner is a great way to be philanthropic and still advertize a business. Offering matching gifts is another excellent way to be philanthropic. A excellent example of gift matching is the company TOMS. TOMS is a shoe company that gives one pair of shoes to a needy child in a different country for every pair of shoes that they sell. Donating old furniture and appliances is another great way to donate and get a tax write-off. Unlike large corporations who can just give a large amount of money to a charity and not hurt financially, small businesses might have to get more creative with how they donate. However, these original philanthropic ideas shown above are great ways for a company to get involved in the community.

Summary

Nonprofit organizations are organizations that are here to provide the community a public service. There are many ways for small companies to donate and get involved with these organizations. Businesses can do profit shares, match funds, gift matching, or they can sponsor a philanthropic event. Non-profit organizations are more popular than ever before, and with so many companies getting involved in philanthropic events it is almost frowned upon to not be involved as well. Many people think that tax write offs are the greatest benefit when donating to a charity, but in reality it is one of the smallest benefits. Being a philanthropic business opens a whole new world of possibilities and even a whole new target market of customers.

Conclusion

Based on the findings of this research, the following conclusions were drawn: 1. While many are not well known, there are a vast number of reputable non-profit organizations to donate to. 2. Customers are more receptive to do business with a company that is philanthropic rather than a business that is not. 3. Tax writ-offs is not the only beneficial aspect when donating to a non-profit organization.

Recommendations
Small business owners should take the initiative to find a nonprofit organization to get involved with. Small companies can do this by following these steps listed below: 1. The first step is to choose a non-profit organization. 2. The second step is to decide which way to donate. (cash donation, profit share, matching funds, sponsoring a philanthropic event, price matching, etc.) 3. The final step is for a business to get the community, and employees involved in their philanthropic activities.

REFERENCES

Bina, B. (2003). Workplace giving brings benefits - CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY.Australian, The,
Cone Cause Evolution Study. (2010) (1st ed., p. A single page). Massachusetts. Retrieved from http://www.conecomm.com
Cooper, S. (2012). The Government Definition of Small Business is B.S.. Forbes. Retrieved 25 November 2014, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevecooper/2012/09/20/the-government-definition-of-small-business-is-b-s/
Klein, S. A. (2006). When good deeds are also good PR. Crain's Chicago Business,29(13), 34.
Savitz, E. (2012). Giving Back: How Every Startup Forbes.Com, 4.Can Be Philanthropic.
Starting a Nonprofit Organization. Retrieved on October 24, 2014, from https://www.snpo.org/resources/startup.php
U. S. Small Business Administration. (2014) (1st ed., p. range of pages that the information can be found). Retrieved from https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/files/Size_Standards_Table.pdf

APENDIX
Demographic Data
Figure 1
2012 Non-Profit Contributions Chart Giving USA 2013: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2012 (Chicago: Giving USA Foundation, 2013), p. 12.

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