Community Leadership: Doing the Right Things for the Right Reasons

When a business aligns its values with a community’s needs, everyone benefits. This involves giving time, money, materials and people in the right places at the right times. Mary Ann has worked with companies to help them evaluate and create community relations programs that are aligned with their values and core competencies. For example, a healthcare organization funds flu shots. A transportation company provides free transportation to Shriner’s children’s hospitals for patients and their families.

The value derived by a business is realized in several ways, including:

•    Developing leadership and skill development through volunteerism
•    Enhancing visibility in the community
•    Enhancing brand identity
•    Increasing the company’s image as being socially responsible.

The value to the community also comes in many forms, such as:
•    Building capacity to serve an underserved population.
•    Bringing expertise to an issue that otherwise be unaffordable.
•    Mentoring future community leaders through volunteerism;
•    Reducing the dependence of nonprofits on government support.

She also has assisted companies in assessing the volunteer interests of their employees with the goal of recruiting or appointing volunteers to represent them on committees, boards and task forces of organizations. The end result is a strategic community relations plan that is aligned with the company’s business plan.