Effective communication: A key to amplifyings social impact

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. We all want our companies to make a real difference, but how often does our message truly cut through the noise? It’s a complex challenge: How do we ensure our genuine efforts to create social impact actually resonate with the people we want to reach? Because in today’s world, simply doing good isn’t enough; we need to communicate the impact of that work effectively to build trust and inspire real change. Build trust through transparency These days, with everything online, people expect brands to be upfront and honest. Being transparent isn’t just a nice thing to do; it’s how to build trust. Patagonia stands out in this area, demonstrating how their sustainability efforts and environmental impact can cultivate a loyal customer base that genuinely trusts their brand. With initiatives like Footprint Chronicles, they give a peek behind the curtain, showing where their products come from and exactly how they affect the environment—for example, in terms of carbon footprint and water use. This level of transparency has not only built trust with Patagonia’s customers but also inspired confidence in their brand. Research shows that genuinely conveying your social responsibility values and illustrating how you operate by those values, significantly enhances consumer trust and loyalty Engage employees and communities Effective engagement goes beyond building trust; it’s also about connecting with employees and communities in meaningful ways. Ben & Jerry’s does a great job of getting their employees and customers involved in social justice initiatives and sharing their stories in different ways. They highlight the contributions of employees and customers who are making a difference, fostering a sense of belonging and connection. At Humble, our model is built on empowering customers to support important causes while getting games, books, or software they love. Through our Humble Choice subscription service and monthly bundles, we make it easy for our community to contribute to charities while shopping for great deals. We also use our platform to help our charity partners get their message out to more people. Each month, we feature a selected charity partner across our social media channels and dedicate space on our YouTube channel for them to share their mission and work with our community of millions. Additionally, we profile their initiatives on our blog, providing additional visibility and context about the causes we support. This approach not only highlights these organizations’ impactful work, but also demonstrates how businesses can use their platforms to authentically amplify significant social and environmental causes. By finding ways to foster these types of connections, businesses can strengthen their audience’s engagement with the social impact initiatives they’ve worked hard to build. Beyond initiative-by-initiative engagement, companies that are doing this work should consider implementing proactive communication strategies that focus on telling the company’s overall social impact story in an authentic and engaging way. As an example, our recently finalized 2024 Social Impact Report highlights our efforts across the year, colorfully illustrating how the $12.4 million we raised with our community last year made a meaningful difference for more than 4,500 charities worldwide that we were able to support. Strategies for authentic communication To build engagement and trust around their CSR initiatives, companies can adopt specific social impact communication strategies: Transparency in reporting: Be open and share detailed reports about your social impact. It’s a great way to make an impression with your audience and show you’re truly committed. TOMS Shoes sets a great example by sharing comprehensive reports on their One for One model, which outlines the impact of every purchase on communities in need. Companies should consider tracking metrics like community feedback or employee engagement levels to enhance their reporting. Storytelling: Tell stories about the impact of your work. It helps people really connect emotionally with what you’re doing. Warby Parker effectively highlights the lives changed through their buy-a-pair, give-a-pair program. For instance, they share stories of how access to glasses has improved education and education outcomes for recipients, showcasing the tangible difference their initiative makes. Regular updates and engagement: Make sure you keep your community in the loop about what you’re doing and how it’s going with regular updates. Salesforce excels at this by providing annual sustainability reports that detail its initiatives. Companies can also use pl

Apr 30, 2025 - 01:06

Effective communication: A key to amplifyings social impact

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.

We all want our companies to make a real difference, but how often does our message truly cut through the noise? It’s a complex challenge: How do we ensure our genuine efforts to create social impact actually resonate with the people we want to reach? Because in today’s world, simply doing good isn’t enough; we need to communicate the impact of that work effectively to build trust and inspire real change.

Build trust through transparency

These days, with everything online, people expect brands to be upfront and honest. Being transparent isn’t just a nice thing to do; it’s how to build trust. Patagonia stands out in this area, demonstrating how their sustainability efforts and environmental impact can cultivate a loyal customer base that genuinely trusts their brand. With initiatives like Footprint Chronicles, they give a peek behind the curtain, showing where their products come from and exactly how they affect the environment—for example, in terms of carbon footprint and water use. This level of transparency has not only built trust with Patagonia’s customers but also inspired confidence in their brand. Research shows that genuinely conveying your social responsibility values and illustrating how you operate by those values, significantly enhances consumer trust and loyalty

Engage employees and communities

Effective engagement goes beyond building trust; it’s also about connecting with employees and communities in meaningful ways. Ben & Jerry’s does a great job of getting their employees and customers involved in social justice initiatives and sharing their stories in different ways. They highlight the contributions of employees and customers who are making a difference, fostering a sense of belonging and connection.

At Humble, our model is built on empowering customers to support important causes while getting games, books, or software they love. Through our Humble Choice subscription service and monthly bundles, we make it easy for our community to contribute to charities while shopping for great deals. We also use our platform to help our charity partners get their message out to more people. Each month, we feature a selected charity partner across our social media channels and dedicate space on our YouTube channel for them to share their mission and work with our community of millions. Additionally, we profile their initiatives on our blog, providing additional visibility and context about the causes we support.

This approach not only highlights these organizations’ impactful work, but also demonstrates how businesses can use their platforms to authentically amplify significant social and environmental causes. By finding ways to foster these types of connections, businesses can strengthen their audience’s engagement with the social impact initiatives they’ve worked hard to build.

Beyond initiative-by-initiative engagement, companies that are doing this work should consider implementing proactive communication strategies that focus on telling the company’s overall social impact story in an authentic and engaging way. As an example, our recently finalized 2024 Social Impact Report highlights our efforts across the year, colorfully illustrating how the $12.4 million we raised with our community last year made a meaningful difference for more than 4,500 charities worldwide that we were able to support.

Strategies for authentic communication

To build engagement and trust around their CSR initiatives, companies can adopt specific social impact communication strategies:

Transparency in reporting: Be open and share detailed reports about your social impact. It’s a great way to make an impression with your audience and show you’re truly committed. TOMS Shoes sets a great example by sharing comprehensive reports on their One for One model, which outlines the impact of every purchase on communities in need. Companies should consider tracking metrics like community feedback or employee engagement levels to enhance their reporting.

Storytelling: Tell stories about the impact of your work. It helps people really connect emotionally with what you’re doing. Warby Parker effectively highlights the lives changed through their buy-a-pair, give-a-pair program. For instance, they share stories of how access to glasses has improved education and education outcomes for recipients, showcasing the tangible difference their initiative makes.

Regular updates and engagement: Make sure you keep your community in the loop about what you’re doing and how it’s going with regular updates. Salesforce excels at this by providing annual sustainability reports that detail its initiatives. Companies can also use platforms like newsletters or social media for ongoing engagement.

Understand your audience: Really knowing what your audience cares about is key to making your message land. Use the right tone, speak their language, and focus on what matters to them. At Humble, we understand that our community is passionate about gaming and giving back. On the product side, we curate bundles that align with these interests, pairing great content with opportunities to support meaningful causes, and then we take every opportunity we can to tie it all together with relevant outreach through blogs, videos, social media, and more. This approach strengthens engagement and reinforces shared values.

A call to action

When companies communicate well, it can bring everyone together—employees, customers, and the wider community. It can build trust, get people involved, and help create real change.

As we continue our journey at Humble, we remain committed to these principles—leveraging our platform not only as a marketplace but as a tool for meaningful change driven by our passionate community of gamers and givers alike.

By focusing on clear, relatable communication, we can collectively strengthen our ability to create the positive change the world needs.