Legal Research

"Managing Your Corporate Giving Strategies"

Posted by Michelle Golden: "Responding to a query by a fellow marketing professional about how much to give to whom, Andrew Rose, Director of Marketing and Business Development at accounting firm Naden/Lean, LLC chimed in with some excellent tips.

To manage those random requests for dollars:

We struggled with this for awhile until I went to presentation on structuring corporate giving strategies. It was quite valuable.

One of the best things I took away was creating an on-line request form that solicitors should use to apply for sponsorships or contributions, providing me with the requisite information for me to make a decision.

And a policy for annual monetary contributions to clients:

We also have several large non-profits that are clients. I determine, based on their activities and billing, what would be a good dollar amount to allocate to them. I then communicate early in the year the total dollar amount to their executive director or development officer. I let them know they can use the money in any way they wish, but we would like exposure in return. This has lead to some 'creative,' mutually beneficial, sponsorship opportunities from them.

Lastly, be generous with the Joe:

We also will donate a nice, fair-trade coffee basket to almost any non-profit that asks for it. We tend to get as much bang (or more) for the buck from these baskets. Cost for the baskets is less than $100, but we get mention in event brochures and, more often than not, there is an announcement at a meal about our nice basket.

Andrew's contribution request form is what surprised him most. Though he and his partners point many people to it, the take up has been little, if any. Guess it's just too much trouble to fill out...

Continue reading this interesting post at the source site listed below.

Source: Golden Practices, 3 August 2009

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on August 04, 2009 (boomark / email).