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Adding a Charity to Your Practice

There are obvious reasons for incorporating a charity into your practice. Whether you want to make a larger impact on your community as a whole, see value in marketing or tax purposes, or just to feel like you’re doing more than orthodontic work, there are a few things to know before taking this on.

Why Adding a Charity Is a Good Idea

Beyond having a positive impact outside of your orthodontic practice, establishing a charity is a very smart move for a practice to make. By devoting energy towards the common good, the heart of your practice can be more transparent. It can show your patients you are credible, trustworthy, and passionate about the community you serve. Beyond ethics, there are several financial benefits as well. If you’re looking to dispose of taxable income, there is no better write-off than to donate to the public good. Alongside this, having a business portfolio that shows a successful charity stands out amongst investors and loan officers alike. This can make the difference in purchasing a new piece of technology to better serve your patients. 

Can a For-Profit Practice Own a Charity?

In short, the answer is no. A certified non-profit technically doesn’t have an owner, and it’s impossible to verifiably join a for-profit practice with a charity. Non-profits require autonomy for ethical and tax purposes, and paperwork doesn’t exist for the two to combine. Though your practice and charity may not seem related on paper, there is a way to structure these two in order to have a more seamless sense of control. 

How to Incorporate

Within your practice, you can easily appoint a designated person (or people) to oversee the charity, and all of the paperwork can be under their name. This person’s responsibility can be managing funds between the practice and the charity, handling paperwork, organizing events, or creating awareness of the charity or cause. 

If you’re looking for a model to base yourself upon, one of our clients has done exactly this. Butterflies for Change is based in Maryland, but their charity benefits children both locally and across the globe. Bruno Orthodontics uses this charity to donate when someone uses a hashtag on a social media post, or when a patient uses their in-house rewards system, up to $5000. They have also held events and sold products, the proceeds from which were donated. Though this is just an example, there are many ways you can use your practice to impact your community.

If you’ve ever thought about adding a charitable arm to your practice, there are many reasons to do so. Beyond having a love for the community, practices often incorporate a charity for financial and tax purposes. Through this autonomous non-profit, you can benefit from disposing of taxable income, create awareness for an underserved community or demographic, and make a lasting impact or legacy based on the goodwill of your practice. Though you’re likely to have a different process for setting up a charity as compared to your practice, a charitable arm is easy to run alongside your practice. If you have a practice or charity and you need marketing assistance, contact Ortho Sales Engine.

Ortho Sales Engine specializes in marketing solutions for orthodontists, combines more than 20 in-house services to create customized, repeatable marketing systems, and serves as a trusted partner to doctors and their teams. To learn more or schedule a free consultation, visit orthosalesengine.com.