We Value Giving Back to Our Community
In the summer of 2018, we formalized the Yakkety Yak Gives Back nonprofit program. Under this initiative, we donate one year of marketing services to a Chicago-based nonprofit that’s mission and work serve as a central pillar in our community.
Our Yakkety Yak Gives Back 2018 partner was Girls in the Game, a nonprofit that empowers young girls to be strong and confident through sports, health and leadership programs. In our year working together, we redesigned their website with a special focus on UX/UI design to make their site user-friendly for donors and participants alike. We also developed content and marketing materials and templates so they can share their story through blog posts, emails, social media, and marketing collateral.
And the best part? We coached and guided them, providing tutorials behind everything we did to give them the foundational tools to strengthen their message and make an even greater impact in their local community and Chicago. We can’t wait to see the new heights Girls in the Game will reach!
And as we look forward to working with our Yakkety Yak Gives Back 2019 recipient, Cara, and another Chicago-based nonprofit for Yakkety Yak Gives Back 2020, we wanted to reiterate why it is important to give back to a local, nonprofit business—and how this partnership can greatly help you and your business too.
Purpose-Driven Work Motivates Your Team
When it comes to the nuts and bolts of implementing a mission and targeting a specific audience, working with a nonprofit is fairly similar to working with a for-profit organization. But there is a difference, according to Andi Summers, Yakkety Yak’s account director.
“Nonprofits give you a lift in your step because you know the work you’re doing has a real impact on a specific group or organization,” Andi says.
According to Ashley Logan, CEO and Founder of Yakkety Yak, this attitude is precisely what she’s looking for—and has seen—in her team.
“By working with a nonprofit in our community, the YY Team can unite under one common goal and contribute to something bigger and better,” she says. “It helps consolidate our focus, and allows us to work better as a team.”
Partnering with nonprofits gives you more flexibility to go outside your traditional mold. This brings a new kind of energy to the work that you do, especially because it’s for other people’s benefit.
“When you have a team focused on a good cause, it builds you up and motivates you every single day,” Andi says.
Andi and Ashley’s comments are not just wishful thinking either. According to a recent Harvard Business Review study, employees whose ideals align with their company’s mission reported higher levels of job satisfaction and work engagement, and were three times more likely to stay with their company.
Giving Back to Your Community Creates a Ripple Effect of Giving
Working with a local nonprofit organization can have a far-reaching impact. For Ashley, giving back isn’t about helping only one person or organization. Rather, it is to help an entire community by creating a ripple effect of giving.
This “ripple effect of giving,” as Ashley appropriately phrases it, is not just a warm and fuzzy thought, but a phenomenon supported by research. In this study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found that individuals who received an act of kindness were not only more inclined to pay that kindness forward, but that their “influence of giving” was likely to persist for multiple periods and across multiple people!
The findings in this study show just how powerful one act of kindness can be for an entire community. And analogous to the results, Ashley voiced just how these acts of kindness can materialize between people.
“In a community, the difference you make for one person doesn’t just affect them, it affects their neighbors, children and family members,” she said. “So the ripple effect of giving is extraordinary.”
Helping Those With Less Resources is a Responsibility
Andi believes that those in fortunate positions should share what they have with those in need.
“Certain skills and talents are not always easily attainable by everyone in your community,” she says. “If you can transfer knowledge to someone that can benefit from it, you should.”
For a full-service digital agency like Yakkety Yak, that means offering marketing services to help a growing brand get its mission and vision out there. This laid the foundational goal of Yakkety Yak Gives Back: if a nonprofit organization that does incredible, impactful work doesn’t have the means or resources to market its mission, Yakkety Yak can step in. It makes for a mutually beneficial relationship where both parties can contribute their services to better the community.
For Yakkety Yak Gives Back 2018, Ashley felt compelled to work with a women-owned or women-benefitted nonprofit—which led to her partnership with Girls in the Game.
“I know the specific obstacles, like how women-businesses receive less funding,” she said. “I wanted to make sure that I could do something that I can relate to.”
Plans to Give Back in the Future
When we launched Yakkety Yak Gives Back, our sole intention was to give back to the community that has given us so much. We are incredibly proud to be Chicagoans, and helping local nonprofits that make an impact on our community is nothing short of rewarding.
We’re beyond excited to announce that for Yakkety Yak Gives Back 2019, we’ve partnered with Cara, a Chicago-based nonprofit that helps people affected by poverty to get and keep quality jobs. In the same vein of giving back to the community, Cara’s mission of helping individuals in need to find employment not only directly impacts the person involved, but their family, friends and neighbors. Their efforts perfectly exemplify the transformative work Yakkety Yak strives to be a part of, and we look forward to all the things we will accomplish together!
If you’re a nonprofit organization looking to increase the reach of your program or raise additional funds, we want to help you. Contact us today to see how we can work together to serve our local community. Also, make sure to keep an eye out for your chance to enter the next Yakkety Yak Gives Back nonprofit opportunity. More details to come!
