Have you cut back on your corporate giving because of the recession? If so, Kristin Tillquist says you've made the wrong choice.

Tillquist, who wrote Capitalizing on Kindness: Why 21st Century Professionals Need to Be Nice, says that an economic downturn is the best time to be philanthropic.

In a recession, the number of people who need charitable help increases even as donations inevitably shrink. "Stepping in to give when so many others are pulling out makes your gift so much more meaningful," Tillquist says. Your generosity now stands out, so you won't be forgotten.

Tillquist insists that the more you give, the more you get. If you give away money, products or even "in-kind" assistance, it builds product awareness, positive brand awareness, customer loyalty and positive community relations, she says.

That's true even if customers realize that philanthropy is part of your marketing strategy. "It still counts with them," Tillquist says, adding: "I think what we have to do is not be concerned if we're putting our own business interests forward at the same time as we're putting other people's best interests forward. Just take pride in the fact that we can help with a community need, a social need or increase some opportunities for other people while at the same time increasing our brand recognition, giving ourselves a caring reputation and making sure we're desirable to our marketplace."

Here are Tillquist's tips on corporate giving during a recession:

1. Treat your donations as a business strategy to maximize their social and business benefits. Consider philanthropy part of your PR campaign.
   
   
2. Give when others need it most to build your caring reputation.
   
   
3. Create a culture of kindness to attract and retain the "best of the best" employees.
   
   
4. Companies considered leaders in corporate philanthropy practices "...typically commit between 1 percent and 5 percent of pre-tax profits to charity," according to Business for Social Responsibility.
   
   
5. Measuring the results of corporate philanthropy is increasingly important. Some companies survey employees to find out whether the company's philanthropy influenced their decision to join the company or to stay there. Others try to determine whether business opportunities arose out of their philanthropic efforts.
   
   
6. If you have to cut, cut back on product development or R&D instead of marketing and philanthropy. Another option is to increase contributions to nonprofits that meet basic needs and cut back, for example, on contributions to the arts.

"As professionals, we're missing this really tremendous opportunity to make the business world a kinder and gentler place, and at the same time to make it a more profitable place," Tillquist says. "And the intersection where those two meet is the area I'm interested in."

To be recognized for corporate kindness, Tillquist says, there are three things a company can do:

1. Create an employee environment that is positive and that employees enjoy.
   
   
2. Provide opportunities for employee volunteerism. "Employees want to have the opportunity to contribute back to their own communities," she says.
   
   
3. Practice philanthropy. "Companies that practice corporate philanthropy are companies that employees feel good about; they want to be associated with them," she says.

According to Tillquist, companies that practice corporate kindness consistently tend to have 35 percent to 45 percent high stock values than do their competitors.

"You can have a reputation for fast product delivery or high-tech applications, but if you don't have a reputation for being caring toward customers or stakeholders or clients, people don't come back," she says. "People do business with people they know, like and trust." She lists Target, Bank of America, Home Depot, Verizon Wireless, Patagonia, EMC Corp., L.L. Bean, Google and LinkedIn as companies that profit from being nice.

Tillquist wants to see "kinder, gentler" characteristics become part of employees' resumes. "At the top of the resume is 'professional qualifications,' " Tillquist says. "We don't see 'kind, compassionate, generous.' We see 'leadership skills, supervisory skills.' Even female professionals who pride themselves on kindness don't include that in our business communications."

Similarly, she says, "Even in big companies known for corporate kindness, if you look at their mission statements, 'kindness' and 'niceness' aren't there.

"We should start to put these characteristics forward as assets, instead of hiding those traits," Tillquist says.

Tillquist wants to see an increase in what she calls"kindness capital." As she puts it, "The more we increase kindness, that builds on itself and we end up having, simply, a kinder and gentler business world."