Workplace volunteering: When doing good is good for business

This publisher's note is part of our 2016 editorial focus, Building blocks: Working together to make our communities great places to live.

The products and services we offer at The Gazette help people make informed decisions every day, in keeping with our mission: to be the trusted provider of context, understanding and connection so every person, business and community that we serve can create 'their best life”.

We don't do that work in a vacuum; we work very closely with the communities we serve. In real and important ways, our company's and our communities' success are intertwined.

Community strength and vitality plays a critical role in private-sector businesses' ability to succeed. You can't run a company without basic infrastructure, such as water and electricity. You wouldn't be advised to run one without being able to count on other essential services, like police and fire protection.

But our communities' influence on business success is about so much more than the basics.

Workers want to live in great communities: In thriving places that are welcoming. optimistic and make wise use of limited resources. In places where people and groups work together to confront problems and create new opportunities. Where public spaces are people-friendly and inspiring. They want to live in communities where they feel they belong, that they matter and that they can make a difference.

In other words, thriving communities are critical to the recruitment and retention of a skilled workforce, and to all of our quality of life. In that way, corporate social responsibility - the idea that businesses can and should work to help make the communities they serve the best possible places to live - isn't just about being a good corporate citizen. It's a long-game strategy that helps business flourish and grow.

This idea isn't new. Local businesses long have known that their success depended a great deal on their relationship with the communities that they serve. Communities long have counted on business partners to sponsor Little League teams or donate to the schools, to contribute to public projects and any number of initiatives that don't deliver an immediate financial benefit.

These relationships have worked well, for all of us. That's why it's important that businesses continue to renew our commitments to our communities, and to keep looking for new ways to leverage our collective resources to have the greatest positive impact.

As a media company, we have some unique things to offer. Our Gazette Gives Back program, launched last year, provides $450,000 in free advertising to 30 of our area non-profits. We also donate more than 800 newspapers per day to more than 70 educational institutions to encourage reading and to spark current event discussions in classrooms.

And I am proud to announce that we're finalizing the details for a new program that will deepen our relationships with community partners by capitalizing on another of our most unique and valuable assets: Gazette employees.

This spring, we will launch an employee volunteer program that will offer each Gazette employee a certain number of paid hours per year to spend volunteering in our communities.

With the help of United Way of East Central Iowa, we are working to support the causes that are most important to our team members, matching them with groups in need of their time and talents.

Together in this program, we will contribute hundreds of hours to actively working to make this a region of great places. We also expect to benefit when our team shares its time and unique talents to the causes they hold dear. Through the United Way's Volunteer Now dashboard, we will be able to help employees' find the best matches for their interests, availability and skills, and we'll be able to tally our collective volunteer hours - helping us all see the tremendous positive impact we can have on our communities.

We believe that the more our employees connect with our communities, the more they will care about our place and come to think of it as home. That helps our bottom line, with improved retention and happier, more well-rounded employees.

Community involvement also improves our ability to carry out our mission - to understand the context readers need about the news and forces that affect our communities, and to connect them to the resources and opportunities that will help them thrive. Everybody wins.

We live in a wonderful community with many companies and individuals that give generously of their time and money.

Together, I believe we can take our community to the next level. That's why, today, I am asking for your help in leveraging our collective assets. Does your company currently have a volunteerism and community engagement program? If so, please let us know what is working so we can share your best practices with others. If not, how can we help you start one? If your company is unwilling to start one or you simply want to join others who share your passion, we can help connect you with a group.

Please send us your questions and ideas.

We want to hear from you. Email the Insight team at editorial@thegazette.com, or me directly.

Together, we can make our communities truly great.

' Jim Burke is president and publisher of The Gazette. Comments: jim.burke@thegazette.com