There’s an old saying that goes something along the lines of, “When life gets good, throw a party” and that seems to be a mentality that translates to business today. Mainly the web business, if we’re talking about literal parties. No good web conference, un-conference or social-media laden city goes without parties of some sort. Here in DC, we have TechCocktail, the Twin Tech parties, etc. Anything to get people together and drink a little bit over business cards.

In the more figurative sense, we have people like Geoff Livingston, who suggest that social causes is a great place to drop your money. And to a degree, he is right. Whenever there is a crossover between means and opportunity, then action is mandated.

The lack of means, at this time when companies are trying to pipeline enough business and extend runway to survive 18 months, and employees are losing their job because the company can’t pipeline those funds, creates a situation where business owners need to take stock of options.

While social causes are always good, the return on investment is a giant question mark. Social causes can create huge bang, attract all kinds of positive publicity, vibe and reputations as Geoff suggests. Or it could simply have no effect at all, and thousands of dollars could be squandered on social cause.

Unless of course, social cause is the ultimate goal, smart operatives are looking at their economic scenario and becoming as efficient as possible. That means, investing in developers, or marketers. That means, hiring a high priced VP to replace 3 low-level managers to save salary cap. That means, pounding the pavement for more business even if it means having to travel a little more. These are optimizations companies go through to secure their future, when times are uncertain.

Certainly, if you have plenty of cash in hand and you’re looking for long-term investment opportunities, social causes gets you there. However, survival of the fittest dictates that sometimes you have to make the short term 3-yard scramble, over the longer 20-yard slot pass because the chance of success is greater. It’s a numbers game.