Here’s my recommendation for local independent businesses who want to make their impact in the community known: invest in some over-sized novelty checks. There’s something about a photo-op sized check that sticks in the collective memory of a community and blocks out all the other forms of community giving that we depend on.

Look like a fair trade to you?

The crucial role local independent business plays in local philanthropy and volunteerism is often overlooked, as it comes from many businesses and in many forms. While there are occasional large contribution to community activities, I argue (and there are studies to back me up) that the sum total of giving and volunteer support from local independents is larger both proportionally and in gross sum.

Young sluggers from Clackamas

Consider your local little league. Those sunny spring afternoon games filled with spunky youngsters knocking the ball around are iconic of small town life, and our communities just wouldn’t be the same without it.  From Clackamas and the Illinois valley, the sponsor rosters are filled with local independent businesses. Interestingly, there are a lot of dentists and pizza parlors listed, which tells me they know their target demographic! I, for one, played on the Dr. Video softball team back in Wisconsin, back when independent video stores weren't such an endangered species.

That's my buddy Chris McCullough coaching. He's also a Think Local Umpqua board member (among many other community boards and organizations), and his wife Lisa runs a children's clothing store.

Not only are a majority of the teams likely sponsored by local small businesses, simply look beyond the ball field and you’ll see local business owners as coaches, on the board, and running the concessions booth. These un-paid jobs are critical to ensuring the continued existence of community institutions like little league, and  in rural areas especially, are ‘staffed’ by our local business owners and their employees.

Traditions like little league tie us together, both past and future, and depend on the support of local independent businesses to keep them running.

Yet, the collective mind commonly turns to those giant novelty checks that are handed out strategically by large companies as part of their corporate citizenship. However, in proportion to the number of employees (a fair indicator of a businesses ‘size’), small businesses far surpass large companies in giving. The Indiana center of Philanthropy did a study of business ‘giving’  and found that, among surveyed companies, smaller firms had a higher average giving amount per employee, $773, than larger companies, $146.

Al Norman of Sprawl-Busters brings this ‘proportionality’ into perspective: "Wal-Mart donated $163 million in 1999," he notes. "That's a lot of money, but it represents less than one-tenth of one percent of Wal-Mart's total revenue. It's the equivalent of someone who makes $40,000 a year giving $40 to charity, and then making a lot of noise about it."

Not only do we need our local independent to boost our local economic multiplier, preserve consumer choice, provide opportunities for entrepreneurship, and promote responsible use of tax dollars... as if that weren’t enough... we need them for the multitude of ‘other’ activities in our community that depend on their contributions and volunteer support to keep our community thriving and fun.

Now all we need is to go in on a bulk order of giant checks.... but where can we find the giant pen to sign them with?

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