When  business owners in Dallas think of ways to improve their profits and increase their consumers base, researching and supporting community driven priorities, like homelessness or food insecurity, rarely comes to mind. In recent years however, philanthropy has become an important way for businesses to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Engaging in philanthropic activities can improve customer loyalty, increase employee satisfaction, and enhance public perception. A Harvard Business School study found that companies that engage in philanthropy are more likely to enjoy higher profits and market share, as well as improved relationships with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders.

Its easy to see how Dallas businesses focusing on community impact can enhance a company's reputation among its customers and employees. When a company invests in social and environmental causes that align with its mission and values, it sends a message to stakeholders that it is committed to making a positive impact on society. This can lead to increased loyalty among customers who share those values and greater engagement and retention among employees who feel proud to work for a company that is making a difference.

One of the key reasons why businesses’ philanthropic efforts can confer a competitive advantage is that they help companies create a more positive image in the minds of consumers and other stakeholders. By engaging in philanthropic activities that align with their core values and mission, companies signal that they are committed to making a positive impact on the world, rather than solely focused on maximizing profits. This can help build trust and loyalty among customers, who are more likely to support socially responsible businesses.

Moreover, businesses prioritizing community outreach can also be a powerful tool for attracting and retaining talent. Many employees are looking for more than just a paycheck and want to work for companies that are making a positive difference in the world. By demonstrating their commitment to social responsibility, companies can attract top talent and retain their best employees.

Focus on community priorities can also help companies build relationships with other stakeholders, such as regulators and community leaders. By investing in local communities and working to solve social and environmental issues, companies can build goodwill and establish themselves as responsible and trustworthy partners. This can be especially important in industries that are highly regulated or have a significant impact on the environment or local communities.

Furthermore, community focused business models can create shared value for society and for the business. By addressing social and environmental issues, companies can create new market opportunities, reduce risks, and improve their reputation. For example, a company that invests in helping house and find employment for less fortunate neighbors, will create additional consumers in local products. By creating shared value, companies can build a more sustainable and profitable future for themselves and society.

Practicing community priority driven business strategies  can also help companies differentiate themselves from competitors, particularly in industries where products and services are relatively similar. This differentiation can lead to increased brand loyalty, customer retention, and positive public perception.

Finally, to ensure the effectiveness of business outreach models, it is important for businesses to align their giving with their core values and business strategies. This means selecting causes and initiatives that align with their brand, expertise, and areas of impact. It also requires clear goals, metrics, and accountability mechanisms to measure the impact of their giving and ensure that it is creating positive change. While some businesses are capable and equipped to research the most significantly impactful and far reaching organization, others question the cost of researching and monitoring such organizations. In Dallas, World Change Business Services, through its Shop2SaveTheWorld initiative, provides an impactful, easily accountable & pain free way to easily devote resources that businesses are already expending to immediate and direct community impact.  When done right, business philanthropy can not only benefit society but also provide significant competitive advantages to companies that invest in it. 

World Change Business Services is currently enrolling local businesses in the Dallas’ Hot 100. The Hot 100 is how we are promoting the first 100 local Dallas businesses to partner with the Shop2SaveTheWorld Initiative. We are inviting Dallas business to step up & lead in support of the simple idea of paying the same cost for the same payment processing services they currently use, with the only difference being that 50% of World Change Business Services’ revenue funds direct action.  These resources fund addressing food, housing and medication insecurity in their communities. Spread the word - join the Hot 100 and support our mission to save the world one person, one community, one planet at a time.

Small business philanthropy is a concept that describes the social responsibility of small businesses in giving back to their community. Nash Equilibrium, a Nobel Prize winning concept in game theory, can be applied to explaining why businesses may engage in philanthropic activities even when it is not in their direct self-interest. Nash's Equilibrium simply put is, “a stable state of a system involving the interaction of different participants, in which no participant can gain by a unilateral change of strategy if the strategies of the others remain unchanged." So, we start by framing the local business community and Dallas community at large as a real interconnected system. We begin to see the real probability that each participant in the system's most sustainable, positive, long term outcome is that which focuses on benefiting both themselves and the other participants in the system. When one business in an industry begins to engage in philanthropy, other companies in the industry may feel compelled to do the same in order to avoid being seen as less socially responsible than their competitors. This can lead to a situation where philanthropy becomes the norm within the industry, even though each company may not have chosen to engage in philanthropy on its own. Furthermore, businesses can then strategically and cooperatively plan their philanthropic activities to achieve the greatest social impact while also benefiting their own bottom lines. 

The economic benefits of small business philanthropy are particularly apparent in Dallas, Texas. Dallas is home to many small businesses that have made philanthropy a part of their business model. These businesses understand that by giving back to their community, they can strengthen their reputation, increase customer loyalty, and attract new customers. Additionally, small business philanthropy can help to create a sense of community within a city or town. When businesses come together to support a common cause, it can create a sense of camaraderie that can be felt throughout the community.

One of the issues that small businesses in Dallas can be particularly successful in supporting is homelessness. Homelessness affects the health and well-being of the entire community, and it is within the community's power to change the way they address it. By contributing to housing initiatives involving supportive case management professionals, people experiencing homelessness can stabilize their lives, increase their self-sufficiency, and remain in housing, saving the community hundreds of thousands of dollars each year just in unpaid and therefore publicly funded healthcare costs, as just one example.

Moreover, as people become stabilized in housing, their dependence on emergency services visits, and their health outcomes improve significantly. The majority of homeless people lack health insurance, a public provision for healthcare, or a primary care physician. Almost 33% of all visits to the emergency department are made by chronically homeless people. Emergency departments are not equipped to meet the psychosocial needs of homeless patients and do not have the capacity to assist them with housing, substance abuse treatment, or mental healthcare.

Homeless people visit the emergency department an average of five times annually, and the most frequent users visit them weekly. Each visit costs $3,700, amounting to $18,500 spent annually for the average user and up to $44,400 for the most frequent users. On average, homeless people spend three nights per visit in the hospital, which can cost more than $9,000 and Dallas currently has a population of over 4,000 unhoused residents. By contributing to ending homelessness, businesses in Dallas can reduce healthcare utilization and costs which is actually adding to the overall economic growth of Dallas. These unused resources suddenly become available for lawmakers to redirect to civil improvements & infrastructure projects that improve property values as well as addressing other pressing issues for their customers and communities. .

Small business philanthropy also necessarily creates jobs, which in turn create new customers, in an obvious and predictable cyclical pattern. When small businesses give back to their community, they are reinvesting in the local economy which directly supports growth of their own bottom lines. By supporting causes that are important to the community, small businesses are helping to create a sense of place that can attract new residents and businesses to the area. Additionally, small business philanthropy can help to spur innovation and entrepreneurship by providing funding for research and development of more efficient and practical ways to directly address these issues.

Using the concept of Nash Equilibrium can alter the mindset of local businesses towards philanthropic activities. By considering the local economy as a system, we can forsee predictable, positive consequences of businesses focusing on contributing towards social causes, though perhaps not yielding immediate benefits to them. Such actions create a sustainable economic environment that benefits the bottom line of businesses by boosting the real dollar value, spending power and commercial attractiveness of their communities. Therefore focusing on small business philanthropy can have a significant impact on the economy of Dallas, Texas, particularly when addressing the issue of homelessness.

World Change Business Services’ flagship, Shop 2 Save The World Initiative provides local businesses with an easy avenue to contribute to their communities while also enjoying many predictable benefits themselves. When local businesses partner with World Change Business Services for payment processing, World Change Business Services allocates 50% of the generated revenue towards addressing housing, food, and medication insecurity in Dallas. Supported by the award winning Merchant Services Provider, North American Bancard, the program offers comparable, top of line payment processing products and services at the same cost as local businesses’ current providers. The only real difference for local businesses is the automatic allocation of their processing fees to address real community issues.

Local customers can represent a driving force of local businesses positively impacting the system. Customer engagement alerts local businesses of opportunities to take action towards addressing social issues through discussing their support for business initiatives and partnerships that contribute to their communities. Such conversations, accompanied by social media sharing and following, can initiate real action from the business community, (especially when action comes at no additional cost to them.) To support World Change Business Services' Shop 2 Save The World Initiative or any other philanthropic efforts by local businesses, one can simply start by initiating a conversation with a frequented business's owner. Share & follow social media content that is designed to spread awareness through visibility, building momentum for the initiatives you support, and play your own part in saving the world, one person, one community, one planet at a time.

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Dallas County's food environment is not favorable, ranking 5.9 out of 10 on the Food Environment Index (FEI). The FEI combines two data points to determine the score - the percentage of the population that is low-income with limited access to grocery stores and the percentage that did not have access to reliable food sources in the past year. Moreover, Texas has a higher food insecurity rate of 18.4% compared to the national average, as reported by the Texas Hunger Initiative. Feeding America states that over 27% of children under 18 in Dallas live in households that have experienced food insecurity in the past year.

Food security is based on three fundamental principles: food availability, food access, and food use. These three elements ensure that everyone has sufficient quantity, resources, and appropriate use to sustain nutrition and care. However, food security and food waste are complex sustainability issues that are intertwined with economics, environment, and equity. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, food production uses 10% of the total U.S. energy budget, 50% of U.S. land, and 80% of all freshwater used in the U.S. Moreover, 40% of the food produced in the United States goes uneaten, which, if reduced by 15%, could feed over 25 million Americans annually.

Food waste begins with production, with a considerable portion of fruits and vegetables being left to rot in the field. This happens because people do not purchase "ugly" fruits and vegetables that are just as tasty and nutritious as their "perfect" counterparts, creating a market with low value. As a result, farmers lose money transporting it to market, leading to food waste. Some organizations are working with farmers to recover these crops and sell them at discount stores and donate them to local food pantries, but there is no widespread effort to recover ugly food. The movement is catching on in Europe, and there are also groups that are trying to fight the ugly food stigma, but it is an uphill battle.

Climate change can impact the growing season for many of the items we enjoy on our table, resulting in crop shortages and livestock losses. Extreme weather conditions such as flooding, drought, and heat waves can lead to higher food prices. The fluctuation in the oil market also affects food prices since many of the chemicals used as pesticides and fertilizers are byproducts of the petroleum industry. Additionally, food takes fuel to move; the farther it moves, the more fuel it consumes. Most of the food we eat is no longer sourced locally, so as fuel prices rise, this cost is factored into grocery bills. Moreover, much of our food production has been concentrated in a few areas. If anything happens in those areas, like fires or droughts, it can be felt all the way down the food chain to our table.

The USDA uses several indicators of access to measure food store accessibility for individuals and neighborhoods. These measures and definitions take into account factors such as accessibility to sources of healthy food, distance to a store, or the number of stores in an area. Individual-level resources that may affect accessibility, such as family income or vehicle availability, and neighborhood-level indicators of resources, such as the average income of the neighborhood and the availability of public transportation, are also considered. This highlights the importance of equity and access to healthy food, which is a crucial factor in achieving food security.

The "Shop 2 Save The World" initiative by World Change Business Services is committed to tackling food insecurity among the Dallas population. By partnering with local businesses to provide payment processing services, the initiative generates a passive revenue stream. Local businesses can avail themselves of the same payment products and services, at the same cost they are currently paying, while contributing towards the initiative's goals of addressing the food, housing, and medication insecurity for real people in the Dallas community.

To support these goals, the initiative utilizes 50% of World Change Business Services' passive revenue stream to fund real impact for real people, in Dallas and beyond. In Phase 2 of the initiative, the focus is on addressing food insecurity by distributing $4,000 worth of $200 Aldi gift cards to individuals in need through a local food bank. The program aims to reach a revenue benchmark of $12,000 before implementing Phase 2.

World Change Business Services believes that the business community has the power to bring about positive change for people and communities that enrich them. We encourage people to follow our progress and participate in the conversation as we strive to save the world - one person, one community, and one planet at a time. 

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Dallas is home to approximately 1.3 million people, and unfortunately, a large number of those residents face insecurity with basic needs such as food, housing, and medication. According to a report by the North Texas Food Bank, 1 in 7 North Texans face hunger, with the number rising to 1 in 4 for children. The same report also states that Dallas has the highest rate of child poverty among Texas cities, which makes it even more difficult for families to afford basic needs such as food.

The Child Poverty Action Lab has reported that currently, one in three children in Dallas is living in poverty. The lack of access to affordable housing, food, healthcare, and education are some of the challenges that these children face. Dallas has the third-highest childhood poverty rate among major cities in the United States, with over 100,000 children unable to achieve a minimum, decent standard of living.

In addition to food insecurity, Dallas has a significant number of residents facing housing insecurity, with approximately 12% of Dallas residents living in poverty. Many of these residents struggle to find and maintain safe and affordable housing. Furthermore, with the high cost of healthcare, many residents are unable to afford medication and other medical necessities, leading to medication insecurity & life threatening situations.

The City of Dallas and several other outreach organizations have been working consistently to address these issues. However, many question whether businesses should have an inherent role in addressing community issues and whether it would ultimately be beneficial for the business community to become more involved in solving these problems.

Companies are increasingly prioritizing social responsibility initiatives as they recognize the benefits of supporting social causes, whether on a local, national, or global scale. From an optics perspective, companies that promote social responsibility project a more appealing image to both customers and shareholders, positively impacting their bottom line. Customers are more likely to support socially responsible companies, as they feel that they are contributing to a good cause while purchasing goods or services. In addition, companies that actively support local communities can expect to see an increase in business from community members.

Social responsibility initiatives can also boost employee motivation and engagement. Employees who are passionate about making a positive impact on society are more likely to be loyal, motivated, and productive. Companies that prioritize social responsibility have a higher likelihood of attracting employees who share their values and sense of purpose. Engaged employees can have a direct impact on a company's overall performance, with studies showing a 17% increase in productivity, 21% higher profitability, and 41% lower absenteeism among engaged employees.

In addition to attracting customers and employees, social responsibility initiatives can help companies build and maintain customer loyalty. Customers are more likely to buy from companies that advocate for causes they care about, and they may refuse to purchase from companies that support issues contrary to their beliefs. By aligning with social causes that align with their values, companies can increase customer retention and brand loyalty. Community-oriented companies may also enjoy a competitive advantage, with socially conscious consumers choosing to support these companies over others.

Corporate social responsibility initiatives can benefit companies in a variety of ways, including attracting and retaining customers, increasing employee engagement and productivity, and building brand loyalty. Companies that prioritize social responsibility can expect to see positive impacts on their bottom line, and even a small investment in social responsibility initiatives can have a significant impact. By aligning with social causes that reflect their values, companies can make a positive impact on society while also achieving business success.

World Change Business Services' Shop 2 Save The World initiative is acting boldly as an example of a business model focused on real community impact. The initiative also offers a unique avenue for the businesses, that partner with World Change Business Services for payment processing, to do the same. World Change Business Services is a top of the line Dallas business services company that has successfully incorporated social responsibility into the core of their business model. Through this initiative, even customers can feel socially responsible. Fully 50% of the revenue received, by World Change Business Services, from their credit card transactions go to directly address housing, food & medication insecurity for real people. Businesses that partner with World Change Business Services get the same or better payment processing services and technology with a guarantee of the exact same cost as with any other provider. It's World Change Business Services' easy to get behind initiative to save the world one person, one community, on planet at a time.

Find out more @ Shop2SaveTheWorld.com and Shop 2 Save The World at our local business partners.