A Startup’s Guide to Doing Good

We’ve talked a lot on this blog about the “why” behind startups committing to corporate social responsibility/doing good. For many founders, the reasons for integrating impact within their business operations may be obvious. What may not be so clear is the “how.” Given the constant tradeoffs between areas to commit resources, it’s important for startups to have a roadmap on where to begin on their impact journey. In this post, I will provide a starter guide to creating and ultimately executing an impact-focused strategy.

1. Commit to a relevant cause.

At RTV, we’re committed to investing in startups whose ability to do good is built into their standard business operations. Impact at these companies is not secondary nor additional; instead, it stems directly from the work the company is already doing (and not necessarily within the typical “impact” realm). When building an impact strategy, a startup should look at its own practices and business model to start in order to leverage current products and practices. This will allow impact to be authentic to the company’s core business, and diffuse impact goals throughout the organization. You can see examples of this from companies like Postmates, who used their delivery capacity to support food donations to the homeless during COVID. 

2. Seek partnerships in both nonprofit and for-profit worlds.

After looking internally at one’s own business, it’s beneficial to seek support through partner organizations. According to Nonprofit Source, 90% of companies believe that partnering with a nonprofit organization gives them better credibility, while 89% find that these partnerships help increase their societal impact. These partnerships can help to accelerate impact. Oftentimes there is a very specific gap that for-profits can solve for nonprofits: such as shipping medical supplies during unexpected times of crises, which nonprofits can’t budget or plan for. 

Additionally, in the highly competitive startup world, a company interested in building out its impact could also find support and intel from an unlikely source: its own competition. Companies have much to learn from one another regarding creating long-lasting societal change, so it’s important for them to build off of each other’s learnings. Finding a few industry peers who are equally committed to impact and banding together can have critical effects.

3. Clearly define social impact mission and goals, along with metrics to measure.

There’s an old saying in the business world: “what gets measured gets managed.” In order to have a substantial impact, a company must decide what it plans to do and how it plans to measure change. Given the multitude of ways to measure impact, it’s critical to settle on one method and align the wider team behind it to best track progress. This will ultimately help with short-term and long-term success in seeing through an impact strategy. With this in mind, we’d recommend starting small, with sequential and incremental goals to grow into the larger objective. 

4. Create and foster an integrated team through employee buy-in.

As mentioned in previous blog posts, 93% of private sector employees believe companies must lead with purpose. Increasingly, employees are demanding that their employers focus on bettering the communities they operate in, demonstrating a passion for corporate responsibility. Therefore, when it comes to creating an impact strategy, it’s vital to have employees bought in from the start. Encouraging employee weigh-in on potential impact focuses can support a strong backing and integration of impact throughout the organization. It will also help to gain support around any initiatives focused specifically on the impact, whether it’s building out internal systems or organizing volunteer days. Rather than an appendage, impact must be diffused throughout the company.

Finally, companies must properly reward employees for helping to meet impact-related goals. Like sales or revenue metrics, the wider team must be made accountable for impact in order to better integrate it within a company’s core processes. Therefore, impact achievements must be rewarded in line with typical business successes. Companies like Salesforce have integrated hitting impact goals into bonus pay. 

Of course, the specifics of a company’s impact strategy will be determined by the company’s core set of capabilities and sense of purpose. We hope that these guidelines can help in kickstarting impact programming and getting the ball moving on building out a purpose-driven plan. At RTV, we’re committed to helping startups brainstorm, structure, and execute their impact strategies in order to create scalable societal change in the most efficient manner.

Written by our lovely intern, Georgia Hoagland.