Firms get creative with charity

This holiday, businesses give more than just money

Owner H. Dawn Patrick-Wout said she wanted to use her company’s design expertise to help create beautiful and functional spaces that would excite and inspire children. She established the nonprofit branch to bring stakeholders together to create a vision for each project.

Shepherd’s Cove serves more than 600 women and children annually. ‘‘They may be homeless today, but they still have visions of what they’d like their home to be,” Patrick-Wout said.

Happy Places rallied help from companies that donated computers, hundreds of gallons of paint, brickwork, a mural in the cafeteria and artwork. About Interiors donated $10,000 worth of furniture and accessories, Patrick-Wout said.

The group is still looking for people or companies to adopt a room to help complete the project, she said. ‘‘That’s what we want people to do. Catch the energy of making a difference,” she said.

Although it did not start out as a holiday project, the goal was to make the center feel like home for the holidays, Patrick-Wout said. Her inspiration to help the community stems from ‘‘my passion for children and my passion for people to exist and live in environments that nurture their inner self,” she said.

Meanwhile in Clinton, the sign that hangs over the dining room entrance at the Goa Palace Restaurant, doing business as Cosby’s Place, reads, ‘‘Enter as strangers and leave as friends.”

‘‘That is the type of atmosphere we want to develop,” said Carla McClinton-Cosby, who owns the restaurant with husband and chef, Yoni Cosby.

Although the new entrepreneurs have been in business only six months, they have supported their community by hosting a feast for the hungry with a live gospel band the day before Thanksgiving, and plan to do it again on Dec. 23.

‘‘The holiday season tends to be a tough time for people in need. We just wanted to do something from our hearts to give back,” McClinton-Cosby said.

But this is more than a holiday effort for the couple. ‘‘We will feed anybody any day of the week that’s hungry,” she said.

McClinton-Cosby does not know of any other restaurants in the Clinton area that support the community this way, she said. ‘‘If all of us came together as restaurant owners, we could feed the whole community. Nobody would hunger in our district or in any district,” she said.

Along with help from volunteers, Cosby’s Place got support from Giant Food and Safeway in Clinton, and the Restaurant Depot in Alexandria, Va., which donated gift certificates for food, McClinton-Cosby said. Miller Farms in Clinton donated all the fruits and vegetables.

There are always people a little less fortunate, said Chuck Miller. ‘‘Being a farm, if nothing else, we have plenty to eat,” he said. The communities support Miller Farms, so this is the farm’s way of helping them, he said.

Corporate citizenshipgenerates trust, support

The philanthropy movement typically has been more about donating money to a cause, rather than involving businesses in a more meaningful way, in which corporate citizenship connects more to the notion of social responsibility, said Charles Fombrun, CEO of the Reputation Institute, a research and consultant firm in New York City.

‘‘There’s a mutuality of interest between the company doing well and the community doing well,” Fombrun said.

‘‘Our studies of the general public demonstrate that corporate citizenship is an important driver of how they rate companies,” he said. People tend to like and trust companies that are active in the community, and that affects buying patterns and a desire to work for such employers, he said.

One of the internal benefits of corporate citizenship is ‘‘it works magic for employees,” he said.

In the neighborhood or among the company’s immediate group of customers, such activity fosters a sense that the business is more than just a profit-generating engine, he said.

A cyclical systemof support

Michelle Wiggs worked in the nonprofit sector before opening More Than Coffee! Lounge in Upper Marlboro less than two years ago. She planned to use her business as a vehicle for community service from the outset, she said. Her goal is to participate in four such projects a year.

‘‘I have a natural giving spirit. I love doing things for people,” Wiggs said.

For the holiday season, she partnered with Daughter for the Day Inc., a nonprofit that serves more than 800 seniors in the Washington, D.C., region, to ensure 250 seniors receive poinsettias for the holidays. Wiggs is also working with the Homeless Education Office of the Prince George’s County school system to provide winter wear such as hats, gloves and scarves for children in homeless shelters, transitional housing and rehabilitation centers.

Pictures of the projects are posted in the lobby of Wiggs’ shop so customers can see where their support is going, she said.

Daughter for the Day of Temple Hills also gets free use of the lounge for fundraisers and volunteer appreciation events, Wiggs said. She is unable to provide financial support, but donates in-kind services that people don’t always think of, she said.

Finding a business that will provide such ongoing support is rare, said Tonja Lark, founder and CEO of Daughter for the Day.

‘‘It’s very, very difficult to get businesses to help me help my seniors,” Lark said. Resources for older people are limited because ‘‘everything is geared toward the youth.”

The holidays can be a difficult time for seniors who don’t have family around. ‘‘I have seniors in nursing homes that never get a visit,” she said.

‘‘My oldest senior is 107, and to be able to take her a flower that will never die – we’re excited about that,” Lark said.

‘‘It is important that the local businesses unite in a community-of-caring atmosphere in order to show that they’re not here to just reap the benefits of the community, but also to give back,” said James A. Dula, president and CEO of the Prince George’s Chamber of Commerce.

It takes a business leader with a caring spirit to commit to the community this way, he said, and it’s part of the chamber’s mission to promote such a holistic mentality.

‘‘It is appropriate for businesses to give to those that help them thrive,” he said.