Corporate fundraising

Rule 1: Know your audience

In a perfect world where pigs fly, charities shouldn’t have to ask for money. Pigs don’t fly so we all have to ask the ever decreasing group of corporations for sponsorship and donations. To be the one who gets the lolly, change tack, think about the person or corporation you are asking for money from: why would they want to support your organisation?

Corporates receive at least 50 letters a week from charities wanting help. Why should they give your organisation a donation rather than Auntie Mable’s Cat Parlour ? In other words, identify your charity’s Unique Selling Point (USP) and then work out how it will benefit a corporate to work with you.

Croydon Commitment has a USP: it is a charity that raises money for other local charities in Croydon and is funded entirely by the corporate sector.  There is no other charity nationwide that solely exists to promote and raise money for other charities which is entirely financed by businesses. Croydon Commitment has been in existence for four years and in that time has raised over £210,000 for local charities and in addition has organised staff volunteering activities to the tune of over £750,000 in monetary value. This is its unique selling point and the one I pitch with whenever I visit a prospective corporate member company.

Rule 2: Do your homework

When I first visited companies, asking them to contribute to the charity, I decided to buy a good suit as I was asking each company in turn to contribute £10,000 to the running of the organisation. If you look the part, it goes a long way to getting your audience to listen to you and let’s face it, I was asking for a serious amount of cash...the curlers really did have to come out.

In requesting a meeting, I sent them a letter enclosing a document outlining the strategic aims and objectives of the charity for the next couple of years. I was inviting companies to become a part of that vision, and additionally, it set the tone for the meeting as well as illustrate our professionalism.  

In addition, I researched each of the companies and the kinds of charitable concerns they had contributed to in the past and made this part of my script when discussing their requirements. Similarly, I was accompanied by one of the supporting company managing directors at all the meetings; in fact, he was a very influential figure and I guessed that if no one wanted to have a meeting with me, then at least they would be persuaded to see me if he came along too. After 13 meetings, and yours truly being £800 lighter in the pocket for a hellishly expensive suit, it paid off; nine companies agreed to contribute and we were £90,000 better off. 

Rule 3: What can you offer your corporate sponsor?

There is no such thing as a free lunch. If you do succeed in persuading a company to support your charity, then think about what you can offer them in return. Croydon Commitment has 35 companies who support it; it’s not an easy job keeping them all happy and the trick is knowing what each company wants from their involvement.

Some companies want to increase their profile in the local area for a variety of reasons, some want to boost their corporate social responsibility credentials, some want to increase staff morale through offering them volunteering opportunities. The list and reasons for being involved are vast and endless.

Croydon Commitment’s activities are broadly defined in terms of

• staff volunteering
• fundraising events.

So, what can we offer companies who contribute to the cause? Well, staff volunteering involves a number of different activities including team building staff days in local charities, volunteering opportunities for individuals, and a Croydon Commitment version of Dragons Den. These activities are promoted in the local paper (believe me, we can always find a reason for a photo opportunity) and such vehicles help promote the benefiting charity as well as the company volunteers. Similarly, fundraising events (a large part of our work) offer ample opportunities for publicity:

• an annual comedy night “Committed”
• an annual charity ball organised by Crystal Palace FC
• an Apprentice-type competition called Croydon 100 Challenge where teams of staff have 6 weeks to make £100 into as much money as possible and all proceeds go to charities 
• 300 Christmas hampers distributed with luxury items donated by companies’ staff
• corporate dinners
• discounted football tickets by Crystal Palace FC and all proceeds to charity.

All of these offer the following opportunities for promoting the work of the companies in the community and assists  in achieving their charitable goals:

• branding of company logos on advertising and promotional material
• newspaper articles promoting the events
• sponsorship of events by individual companies. 

Rule 4: Get yourself some groupies

“Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan”. Successful corporate sponsorship is not about writing a cheque, as I hope I am illustrating, instead it should involve companies on a number of levels and one of those is about involvement. Croydon Commitment has monthly breakfast meetings – I’m sure the idea of a succulent bacon butty is a far more attractive prospect than listening to my dulcet tones for an hour in the early morning – nevertheless, they are still well attended three years on.

These meetings give companies an opportunity to talk to each other, make decisions about what we are doing and empower them to “own” the charity. Equally, a trusted base of people I can talk to – Croydon Commitment groupies as I call them -  is important. They (the two of them) have completely opposing skill sets but they help me achieve our goals and share in the successes.

Companies really do care what happens to the cheque they write out, and the more feedback and involvement you can offer them, the better the relationship you will build with them. After all, I’ve always believed that you only do business with people you like and if you surround yourself with them, then like the quote says, you will never be an orphan.

Further information

• Corporate Support (NCVO) 
• Fundraising through partnerships with companies (Charity Commission)
• Helping companies helping charities (CAF) - research and report into corporate giving.

Have your say

What is your experience of corporate fundraising? Share your experience or ask your questions on the fundraising forum.

Alternatively, if you want to share your experience more formally, we'd love you to write a case study about your experience. What worked well, what didn't, what challenges did you overcome? Email knowhow@city.ac.uk to find out more about using your experience to help others learn.