Giving is definitely “in” in the corporate world. According to a study released by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2005, nearly 73 percent of fast-growth private companies are involved in some type of charitable giving. The trend is no different in the printing industry where distributors, manufacturers and suppliers often give back to either their local communities or the world-at-large.

The benefits of charitable giving can be substantial for not only the organizations that receive donations but also for companies that give. According to a 2001 survey conducted by The Council on Foundations and Walker Information, companies that had high corporate philanthropy indices also had workers who were four times more likely to be “truly loyal” to their employers, and customers who were three times more likely to be “truly loyal” to their vendors than companies with lower indices.

“It definitely builds morale within the company,” says Louise Fiore, director of marketing at Vanguard Direct, New York City.
And the ways in which companies give are vastly diverse. Here are profiles of several distributors and manufacturers who found unique ways to give back to those around them.

The Landmark Image Inc. networked with other business owners to help the local school system.

In 2003, the public school system in Vacaville, Calif. was suffering tremendously because of state budget cuts.

“There were no junior high or freshmen sports teams at any of the schools,” explains P.J. Goodson, president of The Landmark Image Inc., a distributorship based in Vacaville. “They weren’t going to offer any music programs to any of the elementary school students. They were getting rid of a lot of the counselors and school nurses. There was going to be only one school nurse for all of Vacaville,” a town of 89,000 people.

So Goodson, along with several concerned citizens and business owners in Vacaville, decided to create a foundation through Solano County: the Vacaville Public Education Foundation (VPEF). Within three years, VPEF raised more than $1.4 million through a series of charitable events.

“We raised a lot of money through a Pro-Am golf tournament,” Goodson says. “We had a Halloween ball and a fun run that involved a competitive challenge race for adults and a walk for kids.”

Landmark Image also did its part by offering a deal to customers where 2 percent of all sales from Landmark Image’s Vacaville Print Center would be donated to the Foundation.

All money raised by the VPEF went toward revitalizing the cut school programs. But Goodson says when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was re-elected, the local school system suddenly received an influx of state funding and it no longer needed VPEF’s money for the basics. “We had a choice, either dissolve the foundation or refocus our efforts,” Goodson says. VPEF decided to do the latter. “Now we’re doing more proactive enrichment instead of reactive,” she says.

They recently started a program called Class Act After-School Program for schools populated with low-income students. Eventually the program will be offered system wide.

Showing Thanks for Their Sacrifice
Vanguard Direct sends care packages to the troops in Iraq

Like many offices in America at Christmastime, the production division of Vanguard Direct always exchanges gifts through Secret Santa. “But about two years ago we decided to do something different and pulled together care packages for the troops in Iraq,” says Tom Caska, director of commercial production at the New York City distributorship.

They went to the website, www.anysoldier.com, where they found not only biographical information about each soldier but what each one wanted in his or her care package. Armed with a shopping list and good intentions, the Vanguard staff went from store to store to find goods.

“We got lucky,” Caska says. “We contacted a drug store manager in New Jersey and we told him what we were doing. He gave us a 25 percent discount on anything we purchased for the packages.”

The packages included toiletries, food and even Beanie Babies that the soldiers could give to Iraqi children. “Anybody who’s done this before will tell you that you pack the food separately from the toiletries,” Caska confides, “or everything will taste like soap.”

In the end, the Vanguard production division managed to send packages to 12 soldiers. Vanguard management got wind of the production division’s philanthropy and decided to make the soldier care packages a company-wide effort.

“We are very grateful and proud of our armed services in this country and our hearts go out to the soldiers in Iraq,” says Vanguard Direct President Bob O’Connell, vice president of DMIA. “Sending care packages is the least we can do to help.”

Now Vanguard prepares packages all-year round. The company has created a system where participants in the program are from every department in the company.

“The beauty of it all is the responses we get from the kids over there,” Caska says.

Spreading the Wealth
Printingforless.com gives back to the town it owes so much

Livingston, Mont., is a sleepy town just north of Yellowstone National Park, filled with old store fronts and lots of laid-back people.
“If it wasn’t for Livingston, we wouldn’t exist as a company,” says Nick Runyon, director of marketing for Printingforless.com, an online print provider in town. “I even think we’re one of the biggest employers here. Well, maybe the hospital has us beat by about 10 people,” he says with a chuckle.

Because Printingforless.com has such a huge presence in town, the company often feels it should give back. Its programs and donations always focus on what’s important to Printingforless.com employees and what would be useful for Livingston. “We want to build a great place to work and a great place to live,” Runyon says. “A lot of people move here for the lifestyle and we want to support what interests them. Our giving reflects that.”

For example, many Printingforless.com employees are pet lovers. “We allow dogs at our office,” Runyon says. “In fact, my yellow lab is here today and he’s wandering around the office right now probably looking for treats.” So to help their four-legged friends, the company decided to raise money for the local animal shelter. Runyon says the company often gives coffee to customers as gifts, but it buys the coffee from a company in Seattle that donates part of the sale to the buyer’s favorite charity. Printingforless.com has designated the animal shelter as one of those charities.

Printingforless.com also supports the shelter’s charity auction every year and “we’ve donated software to them,” Runyon says. “When we’ve upgraded to a better software version, we’ve turned over the licenses of some our programs to them. If they bought the software themselves, it could definitely get expensive.”

Runyon says another example of Printingforless.com giving back to Livingston happened last year. “That year we had huge wildfires,” he says. “When the fires swept through, the local firefighters managed to save our CEO’s house and the houses of nine employees.”

Runyon says CEO Andrew S. Field heard the fire chief in Livingston lament about how the firefighters risked their lives, but were underpaid and unappreciated. “So we wrote the firefighters a check for $10,000,” Runyon says. “It seemed like the right thing to do.”

How to Set Up an Effective Charitable Giving Program

Here is a worksheet that lists different approaches a business can take when establishing a charitable giving program:

1) Do you want to:
- a) Identify certain organizations that will receive annual contributions
  b) Respond to requests from the community
  c) Make ___% of overall contributions to an annual contributions list and make ___% of the contributions in response to community requests
2) Who will make decisions about the contributions?
- a) The owner(s)
  b) The manager(s)
  c) A committee that includes: (choose all that apply)
  - i) Owner(s)
    ii) One or more managers
    iii) One or more employees
    iv) Someone responsible for marketing, advertising or publications
    v) Anyone can agree to contribution of less than $____________
3) How often will you make decisions about contributions?
- a) Once a year
  b) Twice a year
  c) Quarterly
  d) As needed, depending on frequency and number of requests
*Answer the following questions if you plan to consider requests from the community.
4) From whom will you accept requests?
- a) Employees
  b) Customers
  c) Anyone in the community
5) Who will be responsible for collecting requests and ushering them through the consideration process? (Note: It is important to have one person who is assigned to manage this process.)
- a) All requests should be directed to the owner
  b) All requests should be directed to a specific manager
  c) All requests should be directed to the chair of the contributions committee
6) Do you want to produce written criteria describing the kind of projects and programs your company supports? (Note: This can help define the requirements for company support and communicate the program goals and objectives. It can also help ensure that your company will receive only appropriate requests.)
- a) Yes
  b) No
7) How will you accept requests?
- a) In writing
  b) In person
  c) Over the phone
  d) All of the above
8) Are there any types of non-profits you will not fund?
If so, list them.

Source: Maryland Business Giving 2006, The Baltimore Area Grantmakers, www.abagmd.org

Innovative Giving
e-Quantum Inc. uses technology to help teachers and students get supplies

It took e-Quantum Inc., Reno, Nev., only two to three months to set up most of KidsAndClassrooms.com, but it took a lot longer to develop the idea. e-Quantum’s proposal to create a website where schools in Washoe County, Nev., could post wish lists to solicit donations from the general public actually evolved from Crayons to Computers Inc., a program that e-Quantum President and CEO Ross Barker brainstormed almost two decades ago.

He came up with the Crayons to Computers idea when he was trying to figure out how print providers could better help their communities on a larger scale. “The trick is to not get so busy doing well as a company that you forget to do good,” says Barker, a former president of DMIA.

The Crayons to Computers project, which is now operated by the Educational Collaborative of Washoe County Inc., began with the intention of having a few local businesses and citizens drop off office supplies they no longer used at a small warehouse. Teachers could then skim through the donations and see if there was anything they could use in their classrooms. Since its creation, Crayons to Computers has mushroomed. The supplies are now kept in a 6,000 square-foot warehouse and the product offerings include everything from paper to file cabinets to chairs.

“Teachers can go in and shop for free,” he says. “Now they receive up to $1.5 million material donations per year.”

Barker wanted to do the 2.0 version of Crayons to Computers and decided to take the project to the web. “What we’re doing now is taking the idea of communicating teacher and schools needs to the community-at-large. This is definitely a more structured effort that goes toward the entire institution.”

Much like the e-Quantum ordering system that allows end users to purchase products from print distributors, at KidsAndClassrooms.com, “the teachers can select from an electronic catalog a list of things they would like for their class,” he says. “There’s also a teacher login, which is the keeper of the keys to the site. The administration can determine who will be able to post lists.”

Anyone can go to the website, see the lists and pay for the supplies by credit card. Each site will be customized so it looks like the school’s or the school system’s website.

“We’ve done all the legwork,” Barker says. “Almost 98 percent of the programming is registered with e-Quantum. If that wasn’t the case, this would require a lot of time and resources to do and that would be a deterrent to follow through on the project.”
Barker hopes that the idea will catch on with others. He said he will make an hour-long presentation about it to e-Quantum clients at the company’s 2007 Spring Conference this month in Savannah, Ga. “This is something that we can work with distributors to implement similar projects in their own communities,” he says.

LaShell Stratton is assistant editor at Print Solutions magazine. Email comments to lstratton@PSDA.org.

A Smart Way to Give

How to Set Up an Effective Charitable Giving Program