Improve Your Community

When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! Matthew 6:2

Many organizations include “cause marketing” in their strategic plans. They donate money toward a charitable endeavor that is attractive to their core customers. This is often done with the best of intentions.

Priorities can go seriously awry, however, as in the case of a big corporation that donated one hundred thousand dollars to a popular charity and then spent two million dollars advertising their largesse.

You have to doubt their sincerity when they spent twenty times as much to pat themselves on the back. It may have been a great marketing campaign, but it was just wrong.

Whether you get any benefit from it or not, your organization should be doing something to improve your community. If you’re not, give someone the assignment of finding a cause that makes sense to your staff and your customers. Support it to the best of your ability and “give your gifts in private” (Matthew 6:4).