Businesses give back

Sonoma County businesses are crucial to the successful workings
of the area’s community non-profits and social services according
to a report on business philanthropy by the Sonoma County Economic
Development Board.
“We wanted to take a look at the big picture of businesses
giving to the community,” said Ben Stone, the board’s executive
director. “We were surprised at how much and how diverse the giving
is.”
Stone said the business related service clubs, such as Rotary,
the Lions or the Kiwanis, “give a lot of time” to local community
and volunteer work.
“The service clubs are the warp and woof” of community donor
activity, said Stone. He said his board intends to continue to
monitor and report business-related community philanthropy in
annual updates.
According to the report, 300 business executives were mailed the
survey in June and July last year with more than 100 of them
responding. The report cautioned that it doesn’t claim to
accurately reflect the practices of every Sonoma County business,
just those who responded, many of whom, it said, are already
involved in community philanthropy.
In the report Stone says “non-profit and community based
organizations of all kinds are dependent upon the generosity of
local business to support everything from youth athletics to senior
housing, cultural programs in schools to food for the hungry, and a
multitude of other services that are essential in our
communities.”
He said a prime motivation for area businesses philanthropy is a
sense of responsibility for extending the quality of life in the
community, the importance of which is being “underscored” by the
recession as it attacks social agencies and community oriented
non-profits.
Some of the report’s key findings include the fact that the 19
local service clubs taking part in the survey contributed more than
$500,000 and more than 30,000 hours in the first half of 2009; 86
percent of businesses responding to the survey gave direct
donations to charity and that more than half, some 58 percent, of
county businesses participating in the survey encouraged their
workers to take part in company-sponsored volunteer programs.
According to the report, 78 percent of local businesses placed a
sense of responsibility as the prime motivator for donating, 64
percent cited public relations as another, 45 percent of them said
morale building among employees was a motivation as was worker
recruitment for some 24 percent of area firms.
The report added that food and clothing drives topped the
business support list of volunteers and other activities, at 67
percent, followed by blood drives at 55 percent, the annual
Volunteer Center’s Human Race at 33 percent with additional efforts
including mentoring and tutoring, United Way giving, the Relay for
Life, Toys-for-Tots and Rebuilding Together.
The report added that “although many Sonoma County businesses
generously donate philanthropically, numerous factors exist that
can restrain companies from donating and investing more in
community service.”
Eighty-five percent of respondents said finances limited their
giving as well as lacking the resources to manage programs.
The report said 54 percent of businesses taking part in the
survey encouraged workers to join service clubs, with 58 percent of
them paying for dues, meals and fees at club meetings.
Sonoma County service clubs received special kudos for their
efforts, including the county’s 18 Rotary Clubs, nine of which
participated in the survey.
Those nine, said the report, contribute more than $421,000 and
14,500 volunteer hours to local recipients each year. A total of
766 members belong to the responding clubs.
Additional service clubs include the Sonoma County Lions, with
12 local clubs and the Sonoma County Kiwanis, with 12 clubs.
The four responding Lions Clubs contributed more than $83,000
and 7,750 hours to the community, while the two local Kiwanis Clubs
that took part in the survey contributed more than $33,000 and
4,300 hours to area schools and youth in the first half of 2009,
according to the report.
Asked why more local service clubs failed to respond to the
survey Stone said, “well, most of them are volunteers, very busy
and probably spend more time doing community work than talking
about it.”