Every business can change the world

I have previously written about the importance of business owners/leaders knowing the purpose of their organisation, ensuring they can articulate this, and embed it into everything they do. Increasingly prospective (and existing!) employees are looking to work for organisations whose purpose or mission, and values align to their own and provide a vehicle for them to have a positive impact on the world.

For some businesses, the link to having a global impact is a very obvious and straightforward one (for example a cancer research centre), however others have a more tenuous link (think financial auditors). It has traditionally been that large profit-driven organisations, whose day-to-day business does not directly have a positive impact on the world, would set aside some of their profits to allocate to their ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Policy’. This trend has no doubt seen millions, if not billions, of dollars given to charities across the world and made employees and executives feel a little warm and fuzzy inside to see the giant cheques exchanging hands.

But what about the little guys? What about the family businesses, or sole traders, that don’t have spare hundreds of thousands of dollars to be pledging to causes? Should they wait to build up their profit margin so they can make significant contributions, and give back to their communities and the world?

These questions sparked the idea for Buy1Give1 – B1G1 – over 10 years ago and lead to the creation of a global giving movement that wattsnext, and over 2100 other businesses worldwide, are so proud to be a part of today. Together B1G1 members have created over 117 million giving impacts with this number growing every minute.

With over 800 partnered projects across the world, and impacts starting from just 1c, B1G1 provides a platform, and an app, to make giving simple, quick and meaningful. At wattsnext we have decided to connect our giving to rituals and milestones within our business, for example, each time one of our clients or friends utilises our car park, we give 30 days of access to water to people in Malawi, and each time we receive sign off on a new piece of client work we give 365 days of water. By integrating our giving into regular activities that are already a part of our business, it has reinvigorated these practices and celebrations and given them even greater meaning internally. We also share our giving with our clients and friends to spread love and positivity with those in our network.

B1G1 gives every business the vehicle to connect to their purpose and have a huge positive impact on the world. To find out more about how your business can get involved in this uplifting community, please ask us, or visit https://b1g1.com/businessforgood/