'Tis the season all year long for these giving businesses

Acts of business-based charity can be both large and small. Those who give do it out of a sense of gratitude, passion and compassion by using their talents to improve the lives of strangers. They believe part of doing good business is volunteering time, money or both. In the end, all say, they get back just as much as they give.

In Cincinnati, Openfield Creative, a digital branding and communications firm, is one of several local companies that participate in the annual charity event The Rusty Ball. This grassroots event, created by popular Cincinnati band, The Rusty Griswolds started just in 2008, but has grown every year. The 2010 event raised money for more than 100 organizations from American Cancer Society and the Arthritis Foundation to Cincinnati Catholic Women and The Cat Adoption Team.

Since the ball's inception, Openfield Creative has used company talent to promote the event, a fast-paced night of food, music, raffles and dancing. The company literally puts hundreds of hours each year into every little marketing detail, including creating the website and printed event materials, attracting press and running social media platforms, says Openfield Co-founder and Creative Strategist Brian Keenan.

"This gives us that outlet to give back to the community in a really fun way," Keenan says. "When we first heard about it, nothing had been done from a brand identity and marketing standpoint."

Everyone at the six-person company is involved in promoting The Rusty Ball to some degree, in the office and on personal time, Keenan says. Though the event does give the company exposure, Openfield got involved because it supports the cause. Over its short lifetime, the ball has gone from 1,000 attendees to more than 3,300.

"It's a labor of love; if it was just about exposure it wouldn't be worth it for us," he says.

The Rusty Ball also gives Openfield a place to experiment with creative branding and marketing.

"It's almost like a little lab to test ideas. We can go to clients with demonstrated capabilities of our work," he says.

Tomas Kosa, co-founder of AlphaMicon, a Kent-based company that developed the world's only liquid crystal display technology for curved surfaces (helping vision in several applications), began giving his time to a group of robotics-minded high school students for a personal reason. He wanted to introduce the field to his eighth-grader son.

Now every weekend you can find him, his son and nine Hudson High School students at the AlphaMicron lab, preparing for the First Tech Challenge worldwide robotics competition. The students graduated to this competition after Kosa coached them for First's Lego League. "We have a machine shop, and with my guidance kids can hammer and create the field parts� We have all the tools to create robotics," Kosa says.

Kosa doesn't have any larger, grand plan for the students he teaches. For him, it's just a fun way to introduce kids to a fun way of learning.

"This is nice way to have them learn programming, engineering and project management while not losing sight of reaching goals and learning how to work together," he says. "We'd like to think some of those guys will work here some day, but if they don't, that's OK."

Lori Crock, founder of Dublin-based Written Impact, a multi-media marketing company, is naturally drawn to volunteer work. Her company specializes in marketing for non-profits and startups across print, web and social media platforms. Through her work, she often sees first-hand the needs across her community.

There are several ways Crock gives back to the community. Once a month she sets up a free workshop, where organizations can come for marketing advice in the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center.

"We listen and try to get them started. We give them ideas for ways to get their names out, and connect companies with entrepreneur friends," Crock says.

She also donates a portion of her revenue in the names of clients.

"For every client who spends a significant amount of money, we make a donation to the charity of their choice. We make a donation on their behalf, and we put it in their name. It's a key part of our business and people seem really surprised by it," she says.

Cincinnati-based Green B.E.A.N Delivery, an organic produce delivery service, also digs into its own pockets in its mission to reduce hunger. Among its several outreach programs is one that partners with local organization to deliver food to area pantries.

An example is a recent partnership with Cincinnati public radio station WVXU. The company donated two pounds of fresh produce to the city's Freestore Foodbank for every listener contribution during the radio station's fund drive. It resulted in two tons of fresh produce for the Foodbank. Green B.E.A.N. also donates leftover produce to the Freestore Foodbank each week.

"Our champion cause from company standpoint is hunger relief. What we do is partner with organizations in the community that allow us to leverage food for less fortunate," says Green B.E.A.N. General Manager John Freeland.

The online company's service area reaches into Dayton and Columbus, where they hold similar drives.

Most of the cost of these charitable deliveries come out of the company's own coffers, Freeland says. Like many Ohio companies that reach out into the community, the act is good for the community and the bottom line, Freeland says. Through those food drives, Green B.E.A.N has gotten a lot of media exposure.

"Obviously, we can't deny the exposure, that's part of it. It's a creative way to market our company, and we are passionate about hunger relief. This hits two birds with one stone. We can market and we can help."