Taking The Fear Out Of Corporate Fundraising

The biggest mistake I see in Corporate Fundraising is organizations not taking the time to consider what a company's objectives are. We shouldn't just assume a company might want to support us because what we do is so great! (There are hundreds of thousands of organizations who also think they're great).

Instead, let's get in to the mindset of trying to discover and understand what a specific company's objectives are. Our job then as fundraisers is to try and fulfil those objectives for the company so that they want to partner with us.

A company and a contact's objectives usually fall in to one or more of the following categories:

• Marketing
  Increasing awareness of their brand. Winning new business and building their customer base. Increasing customer retention and selling more!
• Staff Engagement
  Attracting, retaining and maintaining a happy workforce. A company wants their staff to be proud to work there and feel they're working for a 'good' company. Distract their staff from their crappy jobs.
• Tax Relief & Financial benefits
  Depending on the country and company structure there may be financial incentives for a private company to give away money.
• Ethics
  Behaving more ethically (or at least appearing to behave more ethically) a company can improve its reputation and bargaining power with stakeholders, investors, the government, etc.
• Feel-Good Factor
  It feels good to give, and making the decision to give away money on behalf of your company makes people happy.

The easiest companies to start approaching I could to be those you already have a close, personal contact in. They might be friends or family, your past employer, neighbours...really anyone that knows you and trusts you. If you're comfortable talking to them about what you're trying to achieve then these are great people to make that introduction in to a company decision maker.