Giving back to communities – thinking outside the box

Dr. Wael Badawy, IntelliView Technologies Inc., Calgary, AB; badawy@intelliview.ca, CYBF Mentor

Small businesses and start-up companies are typically strapped for money so it is in their nature to always be eager to search for funding from every possible location. While giving back to the community or a particular charity may be difficult due to the shortage of funds, it is possible to still participate in charitable giving.

At our organization we came up with new ways to support our communities. We provide internships and summer positions where students will be trained on different marketing, sales and technical activities, and over the years we have hosted students from Germany and the Middle East to be trained on development video systems.

Additionally, we share our used equipment and the equipment that we have for testing with universities and colleges. From time to time, we also support research activities with in-kind contributions that provide opportunities to students and researchers to expand their knowledge.

We discovered that the interaction with the community in this way allows us to expand our market, achieve our mission, and meet our business goals at a lower cost, while also allowing us to feel great about the contributions we are making in support of young people and their future potential.