Inspiration to give back to your community can come from any number of places, from a personal desire to make a difference to fulfilling a graduation requirement for community service hours. No matter the reason or the origin, chances are strong that you can make an impact.

Giving back may be as simple as writing a check to an organization that works to further a mission you care deeply about. Or it may mean lending a hand to put on a fundraising event in your community. Perhaps you have a skill or talent you can share with others in the name of a good cause.

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If you’re committed to contributing to your community in a meaningful way, consider one of these ideas to improve the lives of those around you:

1. Spend Time with the Elderly

Seniors often hold wisdom, knowledge and experience that younger generations have yet to accumulate. Yet, as they age, a community’s oldest residents are often left alone. These days it’s less common for family members to live near one another, so “adopting” an elderly resident down the street or at the local senior housing center is a way to help monitor his or her well-being and ensure personal ties to the community are maintained. Not only can this provide a valuable service for an elderly person and his or her family, it may bring you great personal satisfaction as you learn about the community’s history through the eyes of someone who saw it evolve firsthand.

2. Donate to Nonprofits

If you’re concerned your budget doesn’t stretch far enough to make a meaningful cash contribution, there are plenty of other ways you can donate to nonprofit organizations in your community. Volunteer hours or even gently used items like office furniture or supplies are often in high demand. You can even donate by helping your favorite nonprofit uncover new funding opportunities. For example, the America’s Farmers Grow Communities program, sponsored by the Monsanto Fund, provides farmers an opportunity to help a nonprofit of their choice. Eligible farmers can enroll in the program for a chance to direct a donation to a local eligible nonprofit organization. 

3. Be a Mentor

Much as you can gain valuable wisdom from elderly residents, you also likely have your own knowledge that can benefit others in your community. Consider the areas where you excel and explore how your community can benefit. You might put your athletic talents to use coaching a youth sports team, teach scouts a skill for advancement or lend your experience as a human resources professional to an organization that helps disadvantaged individuals improve their employment opportunities. If you’re good with numbers, maybe volunteering as a financial advisor to a local nonprofit board is worth considering.

4. Plant Flower Beds

Making a community better isn’t always about dollars and cents. Simply making your hometown a more enjoyable place to be is a reward you can enjoy along with your neighbors. Special beautification projects such as creating and maintaining flower beds in public spaces can help create a more welcoming, friendly environment. Other ideas include community cleanup initiatives and organizing groups to help with yard work for those who are physically unable.

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It was the Fourth of July week. Two of our granddaughters were off at camp; the third was in Spain playing in a soccer tournament with her mom along as a chaperone. So, my son brought his black labrador, Bella, to our river house for a couple of days.

When our son decided to float the river (a five-hour trip), we chaperoned Bella. When we opened the screen door to let Bella run free, she was super happy; when we closed her up on the screened porch, she went to sleep. It reminded me of some front-line employees.  

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Leaders provide guidance in many different ways. Some train and resource employees to make smart decisions and then give them the authority to make judgments on behalf of customers. Empowered ignorance is anarchy. When employees encounter an exception, they are encouraged to work to understand the customer’s ultimate goal and pursue a solution that respects the customer’s desire and honors the organization’s need for discipline. When they make an error, their hiccup becomes a coachable moment. “Running free” ensures they are super happy. Just ask an employee at Zappos, a Ritz-Carlton Hotel, or a Nordstrom store.

Guidance can also come in the form of many, many rules. Little supervision is required if your leadership job is to enforce the regulations. Little thinking is needed by employees if their job is merely to follow procedures and enforce the rules. Customers hear, “I am sorry, but it is against our policy” or “I am not authorized to allow you to do that.”  Or, they just hear a lot of “no’s” without any explanation of the rationale for their negative response.

My wife and I were planning a 102nd birthday party for my mother for 25-30 members of the immediate family. When she celebrated her 100th, the local newspaper gave it great coverage as she took a horse-drawn carriage ride through the small town where she lives. On previous birthday celebrations, this restaurant had been very accommodating in handling special requests. But, they brought in a new manager—one who apparently likes rules.

It all started with: “Can we have her very favorite food—fried chicken—on the buffet?”  The sales manager quickly said, “No, we cannot guarantee we will have fried chicken that day.” Then, we asked, “Can the children order from the kids’ menu rather than go through the buffet?” Answer: “No, your entire party must choose between buffet and menus.” Then, “Can we have ice cream with her birthday cake?” Answer: “You will have to preorder it through us, and the minimum order is 48 cups for $60. And, you will have to pay for it in advance?”  

Are you noticing a pattern? But wait, there is more. We asked, “Can we bring our own ice cream with the cake we are bringing?” Answer: “No, you cannot bring in ice cream.” We asked, “Can we move the tables a bit closer together in the restaurant so we will all be able to sit near one another?” Answer: “No, you are not allowed to move the tables at all.” Oh, yes, one more: “May we bring small birthday decorations for the tables?” Answer: “No decorations are allowed in the restaurant.” All rule announcements were delivered with firmness and indifference, like the sales manager’s soul had gone to sleep.  

We elected to talk to the sales manager’s boss. He informed us if we would guarantee $350 in revenue, we could do the buffet and let children order from the kid’s menu. We agreed. “And,” he added, “Since you are guaranteeing our minimum break-even revenue, we will make sure there is fried chicken on the buffet.”  But, we lost on our plea for ice cream, table moving, and birthday decorations on the table tops.  

Leadership is defined as influencing others to achieve essential goals. He was not influencing, he was merely rule-reading. The role model he established influenced his sales manager to be a rule-reader as well. There was no attempt to provide explanations thus opening the door for negotiation or problem-solving. He likely was convinced he ran a disciplined restaurant. And, it was just that—disciplined, not delightful.  

Employees are not simple creatures like Bella. Being gated makes Bella get bored and just go to sleep. With gated employees, their source of empathy, compassion, and caretaking takes a nap. It’s as if their soul was left in the parking lot before they clocked into work.  

And, the price? My wife concluded they were working very hard to go out of business. “This must be someone’s hobby business being used as a tax write-off and the owner is ready to let it go.” Want to take a guess how many friends and family have heard this “Rules ‘R Us” story? 

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Three years back, when my CEO asked me to take on the project of tying together the various Outreach and Community programs that were going on within our organization under one umbrella CSR program, I thought…”Wow! Where do I start?”

Now, when I reflect and see how a three-year-old organization has integrated social responsibility as a key part of the organization’s culture. I thought of sharing some of my learning during this journey and from my inspirational CEO

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1. Be Authentic – Not only for me but it was important for our leadership to be active with their ISR. This means that the most senior leaders must talk about CSR and commit their own time to volunteering and related activities. Lead by example, and lead by acknowledging publicly, and often, the importance of the CSR effort. Believe me, if it is not authentic, it shows!!!

2.  Learn to say No – There are plenty of issues at hand ranging from Hunger, Health, Education, women empowerment, and so forth, but how can we adopt a focused approach to social responsibility? I decided that we needed to narrow our focus to something the majority of our team felt passionate about. A recurring theme was the fact that we all agreed that supporting better education for underprivileged children is one fantastic and impactful way of creating a better world. Saying ‘no’ to social causes is not something that comes naturally to me, but I realized that staying focused will create a better impact in the long run.

3. Build Responsible Culture – Not Charity: Organization waits for being more profitable to start their social responsibility program, but this was not the case in my organization. I had a great leadership team, who backed me in building responsible culture into our corporate strategy. We started social responsibility from the very first year of our operations, and everyone believed that giving back to the society should be a cultural thing and not mere a checkbook philanthropy.  We created a sustainable road-map for five-years for the sustainable development of 100,000 children by 2020. I am happy that all of us started believing in our mantra “Think Sustainable – Act Responsible.”

4.  Rethink, Reinvent, Rewire – I had to reinvent myself and be creative in making CSR work for our employees. Work often seems nonstop for people in the era of digital, and making time or finding time to volunteer may be harder than ever. But on the other hand, technology and human ingenuity make people more flexible than probably at any time in history. If some of our employees could not go to a school to tutor children, we used Skype – or invited school kids into the office for digital day/field visits.

5.   It’s Everyone’s job – The new generation – the Millennials, who make up for a significant share of the market, are entering the society in force and they have very different priorities. They do not want to be talked at; they want to be engaged in conversation and to co-create solutions. We realized that an enterprise with a true sense of the value and importance of CSR is one where everyone employed understands their company’s commitment towards social responsibility, acknowledges its value, and participates to whatever degree they can. Last year, we conducted an internal survey among-st the millennial employees asking about the three things that inspire them to be a part of Brillio; and undoubtedly, CSR was amongst the top three. This is mainly due to the inclusion of the employees in our initiatives and challenging them to strive better each day.

6.   Run it like a business function – If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Profit and philanthropy have always had enjoyed a curious relationship. Historically, Philanthropy has often been enabled by profit. However, profit has also sat at odds with philanthropy in many cases. As with everything else business-related, CSR also needs to have measurable outcomes. For CSR to be sustainable, we should communicate how it is good for the business and the community.

7.   Communicate to Motivate– And finally, always communicate and motivate: I mentioned earlier the importance of leadership’s example when it comes to volunteerism and corporate social responsibility. This was one of the toughest challenges for our CSR effort, but it was also the most powerful approach. As people say, you have to walk the walk and talk the talk. Sound CSR practices are also about making a sound, resonating, driving dialogue and conversations to deliver return –in terms of social progress, the bottom line (profit) and brand perception.

As boardrooms around the world begin to feel the presence of Social Responsibility in their agenda, CSR continues to present a whole host of opportunities and challenges for businesses. And it’s going to be a continuous learning process, and I am hopeful that Corporate Social Responsibility will bring communities and corporations together in ways that will make our future better!

Abhishek Ranjan has a 12 year history of Corporate and Development Sector experience and currently leads the Banking Industry Marketing, CSR, and Sustainability for Brillio Technologies. He set up the Sustainability and CSR department for Brillio with a vision to help 100,000 underserved young minds by 2020.

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British companies need to put ethics at the heart of their work to survive in the 21st century, said the head of a leading recruitment agency which adopted a social mission last year, as an array of scandals erode public trust in business.

The 59-year-old Cordant Group, with revenues of 840 million pounds ($1.12 billion), said in September that it will start reinvesting most of its profits to benefit society not shareholders – making it Britain’s largest social enterprise.

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“For us to operate effectively in a future environment, an ethical core to all we do will be essential,” Phillip Ullmann, who heads the London-based Cordant Group with the job title of chief energiser, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“As the population demands that standard, we can only operate against it.”

Britain is seen as a global leader in the innovative social enterprise sector, with about 70,000 businesses employing nearly 1 million people last year, according to Social Enterprise UK, which represents such firms, up from 55,000 companies in 2007.

“If you don’t make this transition, you’re finished,” said Ullmann, who has led the family-owned company for two decades.

“The next generation will not work for you, will not purchase products from you … We are seeing it now. We can offer well-paid jobs to people, they’ll ask to know a bit about the organisation and they’ll refuse the job.”

Trust in business in Britain has fallen to 43 percent from 49 percent in the last five years, a survey by the marketing firm Edelman found in January, with excessively high executive pay, tax avoidance and lack of transparency as the main drivers.

Other scandals – such as Facebook’s sharing of users’ personal data without their consent and the collapse of the British construction firm Carillion – have also contributed to public wariness about big business, Ullmann said.

Parliamentarians described Britain’s largest construction bankruptcy as a story of “recklessness, hubris and greed”, with Carillion executives more concerned with protecting bonuses than finding problems at the firm.

“Capitalism hasn’t worked,” said Ullmann, whose firm sends 125,000 temporary staff a year to work for 5,000 clients including Amazon and Tesco.

“There is a need for a new model and that is social business.”

Cordant has capped executive salaries at 20 times that of the lowest paid worker and put a limit on shareholder dividends, while also promising a staff profit-sharing scheme.

It will reinvest most of its profits in education and healthcare programmes that will have a positive impact on society, the company said on its website.

($1 = 0.7515 pounds)

By Lee Mannion @leemannion, Editing by Katy Migiro. 

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