Survey asks – how do companies choose a charity of the year?

Howard Lake | 29 February 2012 | News

• Tagged with:
• charity of the year
• corporate

How effective are the selection processes used by companies when adopting a charity of the year partner? This question and related issues in corporate partnerships are being explored in the Charitable Fundraising Survey 2012, and charities are invited to take part.
Part of a two-year research project, the survey aims first to understand charities’ views of the application process for a charity of the year partnership. It centres on different aspects of the pitch process. The research is supported by the Institute of Fundraising Corporate Fundraising Special Interest Group, and led by Fellow of the Institute Valerie Morton, Anna Betts from the Teenage Cancer Trust, and corporate sustainability agency Two Tomorrows.
Of course, the return on investment for charities that succeed in a selection process can be significant. Which explains why competition for the large charity of the year partnerships is fierce, despite the often low odds of success and the large amounts of time and effort needed to submit an application.
Samantha Parsons of Two Tomorrows said: “Our work with companies has uncovered some excellent examples of good practice, yet a number of charities report unease over the criteria used in the selection processes by some companies. Opportunities exist for companies to understand how to improve their processes, to gain greater business value from partnerships with charities, and make more significant progress towards the charities’ aims.”
Findings of the survey will then be shared with the corporate sector later in the year as part of the programme to look behind the scenes of the selection process.
The survey closes at the end of April 2012.
www.surveymonkey.com/s/29TJRWF

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.