# Chasing Corporate Donors

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/10/09/chasing-corporate-donors/
- Published: 2009-10-09T11:56:01+01:00
- Author: Simon George

If the number of current job adverts for corporate fundraisers is any indicator,
many charities are increasingly looking to larger donations to help meet income 
shortfalls caused by the recession.  But, according to an [article in Third Sector magazine](http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/FundraisingBulletin/943146/Think-ask-corporate-donations-charities-urged/C95C9CB35948D6113F1C7069D0673C4F/?DCMP=EMC-FundraisingBulletin),
charities just aren’t sophisticated enough in terms of their approach.

At the recent Labour Party Conference, Royal Mail’s Kay Allen said that too many
charities send generalised requests for funding without taking into account a firm’s
outlook and funding priorities.  This is a pretty poor effort by fundraisers given
that Royal Mail has actually published their “social action strategy” which outlines
how it wants to focus on unemployed 16-19 year olds for the next four years!

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In my experience, to successfully secure corporate donations fundraisers need to
consider a basic truism of all communications activity –

“know your audience”. I would personally add to this, “and communicate with them
in a way that appeals to their wants and needs”.

I worked for many years in the commercial sector and I know firsthand what motivates
companies. They are not altruistic by nature. Most businesses exist to make a profit
to return to investors or owners. CSR policies are usually a means to this end. 
They generate positive publicity for the company and improve the morale of the staff,
both of which are linked to the company’s success. That’s it.

With this in mind, it’s vital that fundraisers have a commercial awareness of the
pressures faced by and aims of any companies being targeted for support. Enter the
focused ‘[case for support](http://www.slideshare.net/rodrigoalvarez/how-to-write-an-inspiring-case-for-support-rodrigo-alvarez)’.

Among others, The [Institute of Fundraising](http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk)
has lots of free advice on how to create a case for support but I appreciate it’s
not always possible to create a formal and glossy case when budgets and time are
tight.

Bringing all these points together, I thought I would suggest a few key steps which
fundraisers need to consider in order to successfully target and attract business
donors. Experience suggests that time invested on these points, prior to the creation
of any formal documents or campaign materials, will pay dividends:

**1. ****Map out who your target audience should be**.

This is more than just names and addresses (although finding the right person to
contact is hugely important and can significantly increase your chance of success).
Things to look for include:

 *  Obvious links to what you do (like supporting communities for supermarkets or
   medical research for pharmaceutical companies)
 * Whether they have supported you or your competitors in the past
 * Financial performance; are they growing or struggling? You’re looking for growth
   ambitions or at least stable profits
 * Could they use some positive publicity?
 * Size of the organisation – huge businesses tend to support larger charities centrally
   but will often support smaller charities locally so target accordingly

**2. Research and map out their wants and needs**

This is hugely important as your ‘ask’ will fail if it does not positively answer
the ‘what’s in it for them’ question. If you don’t know with some degree of confidence
what motivates your target audience, find out. Don’t assume as you can damage your
charity’s future credibility with a corporate audience if you get it wrong.

It’s often useful to think about the needs of the business as well as those of the
individual / team you will be targeting as you will have to appeal to both:

 *  What do they want as a business generally and from you in return for their support?
   Positive publicity, improvements in staff morale and engagement, for a charity
   partner to do all the administration and make it really easy for them to donate,
   short-term or long-term relationships, a charity to support their CSR specifically(
   like Royal Mail above), a non-political partner etc?
 * What does the person you will be contacting want? An easy process, for you to
   do much of the set-up work, no ongoing admin, for your brand to reflect well 
   on them, career progression etc?

**3. Map out how your charity meets these needs**.

What do you have to offer that meets both the business and individual needs? Be 
very honest at this stage and don’t delude yourselves. If you don’t have anything
they need right now, put them to one side for consideration when their needs or 
your offering might be better aligned in the future.

You will end up reducing the number of target businesses at this point. If you don’t,
you’re probably not being discerning enough in matching what you have to offer that
businesses should care about.

**4. Find real-world evidence to back up your claims**.

Business decision-makers are just like any other; they like to see something tangible
and relevant to back up your proposals. You should therefore include any evidence
which outlines the positive outcomes for them first (linked to their wants and needs)
and then for the charity. Examples might include:

 * Outcomes from previous partnerships
 * The experience of key personnel involved in any projects insofar as this helps
   to meet their needs
 * Any independent reviews or audit reports which highlight success
 * Press clippings and news coverage
 * Facts and figures from other corporate donors illustrating the corporate benefits
   as they perceive them to add value

**5. Why you as opposed to another charity.**

Tie this evidence together with your experience to clearly show why your charity
is the best option for the business as opposed to any other. For example, do they
want specific local coverage which you can provide? Is there an award-winning element
of your service that only you can bring?

**6. Will your ‘ask’ work?**

However you choose to put your case together and communicate it, test it before 
taking the plunge. Put yourselves in the shoes of the recipient, and ask ‘so what’?
It should be completely obvious that you understand their wants and needs and have
matched what your charity can offer to them.

Alternatively, ask a relevant third party what they think. There are a number of
third sector networks out there willing to share ideas.

**7. Communicate your case and follow it up** (subject for several blogs in itself).

Learn from your successes and rejections and tailor your approach accordingly. Sometimes
this might be looking again at your interpretation of the target companies’ wants
and needs and revisiting how your charity can meet them. On other occasions it might
be down to timing or your choice of communications media. Whatever the feedback 
is, collect it and use it to improve your ask next time round.

Overall, I think the rule of thumb is simple; help solve their issues and achieve
their objectives and you are much more likely to illicit a positive response. Have
I missed anything? Please feel free to add your thoughts.

 

 * **[Payroll Giving Excellence Awards winners announced](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/10/09/payroll-giving-excellence-awards-winners-announced/)**(
   9 October 2009)
 * **[Pidgeon and Sargeant to teach Certificate in Fundraising](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/10/20/pidgeon-and-sargeant-teach-certificate-fundraising/)**(
   20 October 2009)
 * **[Nominations open for Institute of Fundraising National Awards 2010](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/11/17/nominations-open-institute-fundraising-national-awards-2010/)**(
   17 November 2009)

## Comments

### By: johnthompson

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/10/09/chasing-corporate-donors/#comment-3779
- Published: 2009-10-10T21:27:21+01:00

Some very good points and, believe me, I’ve seen some very shabby proposals in my
time. However, I’ve also seen some awfully vague briefs sent out, round-robin style,
by some well-known companies to hundreds of charities at once. The worst are often
requests for charities to pitch to them for Charity of the Year status that go something
like this:

This year (just as last year), we’re looking to support a worthy cause that can 
help position us right at the heart of the communities we serve whilst motivating
our employees and customers.

Please write to us in no more than 500 words by tomorrow with a summary of brilliant,
unique, tailor-made fundraising and PR ideas that you’d organise and manage to help
us meet our “strategic” goals that we haven’t quite decided are yet.

“Erm, yeah, that’s us…we’ll get this one!” cries the hapless new business development
manager as s/he drags his/her team into a room for the inevitable brainstorm set
up to tackle this “challenge”.

But alas, as in The Highlander where there can only be one, more often than not 
it won’t be you.

Anyway, I’m actually midway through writing an article that explores this in more
detail and suggests how much time and money corporate fundraising departments could
be wasting chasing these needles in a wheat field “opportunities”.

Additionally, I’ll be making a point that whilst good pitches have to match a company’s
current objectives at the time of pitching, that corporate fundraisers should also
devote time trying to persuade companies to CHANGE those objectives if they really
feel there’s an indisputable synergy between them. I mean, can you imagine if every
company in the UK simultaneously decided that child poverty and climate change were
not important issues to them? Would the likes of Save the Children or WWF simply
close up their corporate fundraising shops? Of course they wouldn’t. Instead they’d
be using every ounce of effort and every piece of logical argument they could to
create proposals sprinkled with irresistible reasons to get companies to get on 
board and support THEIR objectives.

I’ll post it up here when it’s completed.

For now though, I just wanted to say that whilst some pitches from charities looking
for corporate support are hopeless, so are some of the briefs they are asked to 
work to. Both parties could and should do better.

Indeed, as I once advised a client with good effect, maybe it’s time charities thought
about sending out sophisticated briefs to companies asking THEM to pitch to be Company
of the Year with an ultimate objective of creating a Win-Win scenario rather than
a 6-1 thrashing:)

[http://www.changingbusiness.com](http://www.changingbusiness.com) 
 Change today
for a better tomorrow

### By: kevin baughen

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/10/09/chasing-corporate-donors/#comment-3780
- Published: 2009-10-20T17:43:56+01:00

Great comments John. The situation also reminds me of my agency days when clients
submitted creative briefs expecting award-winning marketing campaigns but without
having a clear idea of what their proposition was.

Perhaps one of the numerous research groups (nfp synergy, Cass, UKC etc) might like
to conduct a study into what corporates expect from their charity partners?

Kevin Baughen is the founder of Bottom Line Ideas (www.bottomlineideas.com) and 
a volunteer speaker for Cancer Research UK

### By: johnthompson

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/10/09/chasing-corporate-donors/#comment-3781
- Published: 2009-10-21T07:07:54+01:00

Thanks Kevin. Most research already available is focussed on what companies want
from their prospective charity partners. The problem is that that’s often not communicated
effectively at the briefing phase. As you mention, the same problem exists for agencies…
I’ve been there too: PR.

However, if the concept of creating mutually beneficial strategic partnerships is
to become a more common principle upon which to base corporate community relationships,
and not just the latest buzz-phrase, perhaps researchers could look at what charities
want and need from their corporate partners? More specific to this thread, maybe
there’s a need to work towards creating a standardised briefing template informed
by the positive and negative experiences of community affairs managers AND corporate
fundraisers? Perhaps this thread is the starting place for outlining the key elements
of what a good brief from companies seeking out charity partners should contain?

Any fundraisers or community affairs managers like to get the ball rolling?

Good briefs means less good griefs!

[http://www.changingbusiness.com](http://www.changingbusiness.com) 
 Change today
for a better tomorrow

### By: michaelhodgson

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/10/09/chasing-corporate-donors/#comment-3782
- Published: 2009-10-21T11:21:02+01:00

yes, charities need to get better at this, but companies do too.

Last year I was contacted by a PR company, with a round robin email telling me that
they’d like me to submit a proposal to work with their client on a Charity of the
Year partnership, and could I detail what the company could expect from us.

Now this was something I would have loved to get – maybe. The problem was that the
email didn’t include the details of the company, and when asked the PR company would
not divulge the name of their client!

How they expected a decent ‘partnership’ proposal when I had no idea who their client
was, I’ll never know.

At the end of the day, I never found out who the company was or who they may have
partnered with, but I suspect that it simply didn’t happen – and I don’t know if
the company know how badly their PR experts handled the whole process…

### By: johnthompson

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/10/09/chasing-corporate-donors/#comment-3783
- Published: 2009-10-21T19:18:01+01:00

Hi Michael,

I had a letter published on this very same topic in PR Week about a million years
ago. It’s so annoying that this stills goes on. The usual case is that the agency
is actually pitching to a prospective client and decides, at the last minute, to
add a charity-touch in their proposal Not normally sigificant, maybe a few signed
T-Shirts for a competition or something equally as useless. Don’t fall for it; if
they can’t tell you who their client is, they don’t have the client. Simple as that.

Consultants in business, fundraising and recruitment [http://www.changingbusiness.com](http://www.changingbusiness.com)

Change today for a better tomorrow