Q&A: Bob Anderson, CEO Prisma Graphics

By Nonprofit Marketing ArizonaFebruary 22, 2016

Bob Anderson, CEO of Prisma Graphics, talks about how his company supports nonprofits.

Q: How did you choose your company’s nonprofit focus?

A: When we first purchased Prisma 15 years ago, we began donating print to Child Crisis Nursery and Hospice of the Valley. I always felt you needed a break coming into life and a break going out. The rest of us can fight it out in the middle. Over the course of many years, we’ve worked with many great nonprofits and charities, and realized the Prisma team could find a way to support any organization.

Q: What inspired you to pursue this (or all) cause(s)?

A: After the 2008 financial collapse, so many nonprofits needed help. Many could not find a way to even market their events. Prisma began a program of printing for any charity that needed help at a highly reduced rate -- in many cases half of normal costs. We helped hundreds of organizations from 2009 through 2013. In fact, we continue helping many because the last few years have been even harder for Arizona charities.

Q: What is the importance of community service for your business?

A: As a company, our employees organize annual giving drives for Crisis Nursery and St. Mary’s Food Bank. Supporting education in Arizona is the No. 1 goal at Prisma this year. Read On Arizona and Loyola Projects are examples of two organizations working to improve the success of Arizona children that have our support. These two organizations are led by small groups of individuals with the passion to make rapid changes for the betterment of future generations.

Q:  How does community involvement impact your brand, employee engagement or even sales?

A: Prisma has always been a socially responsible brand in Arizona. Our employees pulled out all the stops last month to print 100,000 donated flyers in about four hours to help Arizona Department of Public Safety. DPS blanketed homes and businesses along the I-10 with volunteers from the community trying to catch a random freeway gunman. Our clients, vendors, employees and families all travel this I-10 corridor. We do not do these types of things for pats on the back; the Prisma community is about making a difference with real action.

Q:  Tell us something about the company outsiders don’t know.

A: Prisma is what most companies will look like in the future, citizens from all over the world. Different cultures and lifestyles working together to make a better life for their families.

Q:  What’s your favorite event the company hosts or sponsors?

A: One of our most thoughtful and giving team members is Ed Bazzy. Ed started the food drive years ago and now it is a yearly tradition in November for St. Mary’s Food Bank. There is competition between groups and departments. We have such a great time. Our shipping department distributes 4’X 4’ power packs around the buildings, packs all the donated items neatly and delivers them to St. Mary’s Food Bank.

Q: What should nonprofits do to market themselves?

A: Nonprofits should really spend more time focusing on the data of their donors. They have so much data, which can help them increase donations and reach out to new donors with similar profiles as their most giving donors. We have seen our nonprofits increase success when they spend time up front on their databases.

Q: How long has the company been involved with community? Do you have a committee that reviews requests? Do you support your employees involvement in the community?

A: Sally and Don Frank, the original owners of Prisma, donated quite a bit of print to the Arizona community during their first 20 years of business. We have continued that tradition. Several of us look over the needs and requests from the nonprofits, and many of our employees are volunteers for their special community service programs. A week does not go by that we are not supporting a nonprofit or community organization in some capacity.

Q: If you could give one tip to companies on their community involvement, what would it be?

A: Find a charity in which everyone in the organization can stand behind. Go all in to help that organization with manpower, resources and money. I always find it moving that the employee who has the least amount to give is the one who gives the most from their wallet and heart.

Q: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

A: Spend lots of weekends with my wife and family in Flagstaff, and rebuild an old Dodge Power Wagons from the 1940’s.