Use Your Business to Give to Charity | By Ruby McGuire

As a coach, you have a deep desire to be of service.

What if you could use your business to make an even bigger impact than you're already doing through your current coaching?

For years I've wanted to support the homeless. I've never really known the big reason why but I've had this burning passion to help them. I think everyone should have a home. My home is my sanctuary and I think you can cope with most things in life if you have a safe place to call your own.

I wanted to find a way to help the homeless through my coaching business. And I met an amazing lady, Alisoun Mackenzie, who has created Give-to-Profit and has a book of the same name, who inspired me to take action.

What if you could make a huge difference to a charity of your choice through your business?

Today I'm going to share a few little gems to help you think how you could give back through your business and a mini plan to get you started - one simple act of kindness at a time. Imagine if you could make a huge difference to a charity of your choice through your business. Wouldn't that be fabulous?

Here's how I give back to charity through my business:

I started by offering a 1-hour coaching session, called Mission 100, normally valued at £200 for just £20 for the first 25 people.  The price rises as each set of 25 people signs up. I set a goal to work with 100 people over a six-month period. I've raised over £400 so far and am still on my mission to help my chosen charity, Social Bite.

What could you do? Here are 5 ideas for you to get those cogs whirring:

1. Offer some low price-point coaching like I did, with the full amount going to charity (less costs)
2. Offer a percentage of your 1:1 coaching sales that you then give to a charity of your choice.*
3. Create an offer on one of your online programs, where you give a percentage of your sales to charity.*
4. Create a pay-what-you-can offering, where you invite people to pay what they can on something that you sell, and you use that money for charity
5. Create an auction where you sell your item with a minimum price point and the sale goes to the highest bidder (like you would on eBay).

* Be aware that if you mention in your marketing that you're donating a share of the sales price to charity, many countries including the UK have legislation on what you need to say and do. It's easy enough to comply with, just make sure you know what you're doing - which is why I work with Alisoun Mackenzie who can help you with this. See links at the end of this article for details.

Who could you support?

Figuring out who to support can take time, as there are so many ways you can give back. It's good to find a charity that has meaning for you - that really speaks to you and that you feel enthusiastic about.

Here's who I support and why: I'm a bit of a caffeine addict, and well known for it in my circles where I get tagged in coffee posts and sent fun quotes, so I support a charity called Social Bite. They have a chain of coffee shops in cities in Scotland where 25% of their staff have a homeless background, and customers can do a pay-it-forward coffee/meal. Plus they're now working on setting up a village for the homeless, which is just incredible. We recently moved to Scotland, so coffee, Scotland AND helping the homeless, I'm in!

Here's what I did:

1. Create a sales page (I use SamCart).
2. Create a link to a payment system to take payment (I use PayPal and Stripe).
3. Create some kind of booking system to make the process of booking really easy for you and your clients.
4. Pull together a super simple marketing plan.
5. Work out a budget (there are costs involved with PayPal/card charges and admin to promote the initiative).
6. Work out the logistics of fundraising for your chosen charity. They may have things in place to support you and/or guidelines you need to follow.
7. Comply with cause marketing legislation (see shaded comments above).

How can you market your fabulous new idea?

1. Talk to people about it. When you're on calls, out and about networking etc.
2. Ask people to help you spread the word so that you can raise more money.
3. Tag your chosen charity's page so that people who are already interested in that cause can find out how they can help through you.
4. Get creative with ways to spread the word.

Setting this up really is quite a quick process. I've walked you through the basic steps of how to give back, a step-by-step plan of what you need to do and how to market your business idea. It can really be that simple.

What's next for me?

Well I still want to hit my mission 100, and then who knows? Maybe they'll be a Mission 200 next, or something even bigger. I've got lots of ideas bubbling away!

What's next for you?

I hope that's got you thinking about how you could make a difference through your business. Maybe you've got an idea that you could use to support a charity. It's a great way to give back, and it's so much fun knowing that your gifts and talents can provide someone with the support they need.

Check out Alisoun's Give-to-Profit website and book if you'd like to get more detailed information on how to make it happen.

Check out Ruby's Visibility Quiz, where you can find out just how visible you really are!

If you liked this article on giving back from Ruby, you may also like:

• 5 Surprisingly Effective Steps to Set Your Goals (in 90 Mins or Less) also by Ruby McGuire
• NEWS: The Coaching Tools Company Charitable Donations for 2018-2019
• Stop Blaming: Pick up the Mirror, not the Magnifying Glass!

Contributing Author:

Ruby McGuire is a Business & Mindset Queen. She's an Accredited Master Coach & Master Mentor with the IAPC&M, Trainer, Inspirational Speaker and Author of multiple books. She loves helping her clients step up and become leaders (aka Queens) of their businesses. She helps her clients develop their leadership and business skills, create a success mindset and attract dreamy clients. She is a Brit on a mission to live a simpler life without marketing on social media so that she can spend more time in her beautiful Scottish surroundings. You can find her at her pretty online home, over on her podcast show, Rock Your Fabulous Biz, and here where she shares her Mini Guide to Marketing Without Social Media. When she’s not working you’ll find her surrounded by books, making hand-made cards, and enjoying life with her hubby, little dog and chickens (usually with a Whittard Vanilla cappuccino in her hand)!

Learn more about Ruby & see all their articles here >>