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A short series on the business of dentistry: Part 6 - Social Legacy

I know you've had enough of reading about the business of dentistry over Christmas when you're trying to eat turkey curry and wondering what you're going to do with all that wrapping paper and plastic, but the last thing that I think we should all look at when we have the privilege of leading a business and the like-minded team of people is what the Corporates like to call corporate social responsibility but what we like to call social legacy.

I think that businesses exist to be part of society and to help make society better, and I explained this in the introduction to this blog way back at the start of the Christmas period. 

I don't believe that we should subscribe to the philosophy that all businesses are for to make money for the owners; I think that is short-sighted and ends up almost all the time, with the snake eating itself from the tail to the head.

I think if we can look at ourselves as something which should be part of a community both locally and globally and can develop a team of people and make their lives better and more inspired and more engaged, then we're likely to look after our patients the best we can and our business is likely to thrive. 

Many years ago, I read 'Let My People Go Surfing' by Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, who set up 1% for the planet.

From very early on, he taxed his own business an extra 1% and gave that money to causes that helped global warming and planetary sustainability.

I was very taken by this and investigated the possibility of becoming a 1% for the planet business, but it was not really possible for us, so we set up 1% for social legacy ourselves.

Since then, we have generated hundreds of thousands of pounds by 'taxing' ourselves 1% each year and making sure that money went to good causes.

In our practice, we have a charity committee that is elected and deals with the day-to-day running of the legacy projects that we have, which in some years can be between £70,000 and £80,000 worth of donations and assistance.

The team themselves decide where the money goes and our chosen charities, which can run for three years each, and we usually have four or five of those together with other projects, which include charity match funding for team members who are raising money but also a considerable amount of work with local food banks, which has been really successful.

This allows us to be integrated as part of the community.

We've also partnered with the local youth football team, which has both boys' and girls' disability football teams.

I'm a coach at that club, so the partnership really hits home with me because we are investing in the club and helping them make things better for the young people who play. They are working with us, telling people who we are and the work that we do and giving us exposure to the community that we become part of. 

This all forms around the CSR, or Social Legacy Project banner, and is something that many of our team members are really proud of. It galvanises people, brings them together as a group and allows us to share our values, moving forward with a broader audience.

It's easily forgotten social legacy projects.

It can quickly become the last thing on the list or the first thing to get cut when we move forward, but we were so proud of the fact that as a business, even when things were at the very toughest for us in 2020 when our backs were to the walls, we still managed to continue with our commitment for social legacy, which stands out brightly in the history of the practice and the business so far.

Colin Campbell
By Colin Campbell
on 29/12/23 18:00
   

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