A supermarket loyalty card helps the company more than it does the shopper. We all know that it’s less a way of rewarding customer loyalty and more a way of collecting useful data. Much of the ‘giving’ we do in business is because some kind of return is expected down the track.

This drawing that illustrator Johanna Basford gave away for free on her blog got her a book deal. That book went on to sell a million copies. Her colouring books are at #1 and #2 on the Amazon Bestsellers List (no affiliate link) as we speak. That’s across all books, not just books in her category. How is that possible?

The ROI on real giving is hard to measure, which is why it’s not easy to implement into a hard headed, metrics-driven business strategy, and exactly why it’s worth doing. There is no handy metric for the meaningful—generosity, courage, beauty or love which is why we value them so much.

Just because you can measure it doesn’t mean it mattered.

Image by Oakley Originals.