Are you investing in your corporate bonds?

Corporate fundraising can be a challenging sector. Securing strong support depends on the engagement you create and the relationships you build.

As consultants, we often need to address the misunderstanding that corporate giving will be the funding stream that’s guaranteed to get an urgent project over the line. “It’s not surprising,” says Gifted’s Chief Executive, Amy Stevens. “Clients are passionate about the impact of their charitable activities and, understandably, feel drawn to the nearest CSR pot. But it’s rare to secure meaningful corporate gifts unless there are strong personal links to the business and a clear alignment of values, often with attractive volunteering opportunities forming part of the picture.”

The challenges are also evident in the Charities Aid Foundation’s latest report on Corporate Giving, which this year includes the wider business community as well as FTSE 100 companies. The report highlights that whilst corporate giving currently stands at around £4.29bn, if all companies met the best practice target of donating 1% of pre-tax profits, this could rise to as much as £9.9bn. So, how can you increase your chances of tapping into this income stream?

Map your network

One of the fundamentals for successful fundraising, especially where major gifts are concerned, is that people give to people. Relationships are just as important when seeking corporate funding as they are for other sources of donations, but what’s often overlooked is that they can be generated by anyone: trustees, volunteers and even your beneficiaries.

So, as part of building and qualifying your corporate prospect pipeline, it pays to put time into a comprehensive network mapping exercise. Too many charities side-step this process and inevitably miss out. By asking everyone on your team, “Who do we know and how can they help us reach the corporate decision-makers?”, you’re likely to reveal business connections that you never knew existed. From here, you can cultivate your corporate prospects and begin the critical engagement process with the benefit of an all -important ‘foot in the door’.

What’s your proposition?

Once you’ve qualified a prospective corporate donor, it’s important to have a clear funding proposition to put to them. Are you asking for pro-bono support? Sponsorship? Or a specific donation towards a project that fulfils their CSR goals and perhaps offers staff volunteering opportunities? According to Neighbourly, 70% of businesses provide paid days off to staff undertaking volunteering activities with charities, but only around 15% of employees actually use this incentive. ThirdSector has shared similar findings, highlighting that although the number of companies offering volunteering days has grown since the pandemic, few of them actively promote their schemes. As a result, employees are often unaware of the opportunity to take ‘volunteer days’ as paid leave. In response, Neighbourly has recently launched DigitalBridge, a campaign linking company volunteers with matched charities eager for their knowledge and skills. It’s a win-win opportunity supported by evidence that ‘giving back’ packs a punch when it comes to job satisfaction and professional growth. So, if you can see a gap in your operational skills-base that an injection of corporate expertise could fill, it’s worth exploring the different partnerships on offer.

Equally, don’t underestimate the power of events and challenges to attract new corporate donors. These initiatives not only deliver team building benefits but can act as a gateway into your organisation and encourage donors to start their own giving journey with you. An employee who signed up to your charity bike ride because it sounded like fun, could easily become a regular giver if you take the time to steward them properly.

Don’t undersell or overpromise

However you choose to package your CSR opportunities, it’s important to present these as part of a clear and considered recognition scheme. By matrixing the different levels of support available, you remove the risk of giving away too much for too little. For example, a corporate donor might be offered the use of your logo as part of mutually agreed comms, whereas a corporate partner or champion would enjoy more benefits and be the first to hear about future projects or programmes. Whilst it can be tempting to treat every business the same because every corporate donation is appreciated, without an agreed recognition framework it can be all too easy to undersell or overpromise. That said, remember to remain agile – some corporates will prefer you to build a specific partnership with them.

Corporate philanthropy in action

Over the years, we’ve seen some brilliant examples of corporate philanthropy in action. At Peterborough, we developed, with the team, what became the largest Cathedral corporate programme outside London. It grew from small scale breakfast events with local industry speakers, to an annual black-tie dinner for 400 local businesses of all sizes. Again, the key was relationships. The campaign delivered against the ‘benefit offerings’ or each, and had a corporate committee who helped us plan events and gain new partners. Before long, local businesses felt they were missing out if they weren’t signed up.

Whilst tiered corporate giving schemes are valuable, it’s also important to recognise when a more bespoke approach is needed. We recently worked on a corporate strategy for a client, and it was clear that a very tailored response to the brief was required. For one donor, they wanted the ‘benefit’ for giving to focus on their staff team. They said it helped staff morale to see the company helping charities and showing the impact they were having. They also liked to learn from their charity partners, which in this case meant developing a greater understanding of how to support LGBTQ+ colleagues. For others, the marketing potential was the most important element, so receiving recognition on websites and merchandise was critical to demonstrating that they are operating charitably. And, just occasionally, corporate gifts can come from unexpected connections. Gifted Chairman, Andrew Day, says “it was the strength of the feasibility study which led to Kenilworth School securing a £750,000 leadership gift from local private business. Whilst this may not be something that happens every day, especially in the schools’ sector, it does show that with the right research, engagement and cultivation, corporate philanthropy is very much alive and well.”

If your charity is looking to grow its corporate giving and you'd like some advice on how to build this important income stream, get in touch with one of our Directors and ask for an initial discussion about how we might help.