Often B4B implementation starts before the money has been earned, not afterward. It is part of strategic planning and budgeting in advance of the fiscal year. Corporate leaders can make a decision that over the next 12 months, X percent of earnings or X dollars will be given away. This commitment can be as firm and specific as deciding to hire 20 new positions or to open up three new markets. 

The “X” number may be small at first, as leaders seek to be comfortable with the concept. That is all right; it can always be increased later. The important thing is to make the commitment. 

This is not meant to short-change the legitimate needs of the business for capital. If the core business doesn’t thrive, there will be no giving at all in the future. 

The corporate P&L does not need to be in a stellar state before you begin B4B. If we wait for perfect timing and conditions, with all the reserves fully stocked, we may never start to open up to benevolence. There’s a truth that goes beyond the balance sheet in what Jesus said, “The pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:32-33). While in the middle of thinking of others’ needs God seems to delight in taking care of ours. 

Once the percentage or dollar allocation for benevolence is implanted in the annual budget, it is then a routine matter to requisition the payouts each quarter, or at whatever intervals the financial reports are produced. No rehashing of the topic is needed. No elaborate bureaucracy is required.

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