This section gives basic information for putting together applications to companies. This can very but some companies do have clear policies.
To make an effective appeal to industry you must have a basic understanding of why firms give. This enables you to put forward good reasons why they should support your work. Some companies in this guide receive up to 100+ applications each week. You need to make a good case for yours to be successful. A company will not be particularly impressed with a general plea to 'put something back into the community'. They want something more substantial. You should be able to demonstrate a clear link with the company, be it geographical, product, employee contact, or some other connection.
Cash Donations
Why companies give?
What companies give?
The main reason for company giving is often said to be enlightened self-interest, rather than pure altruism and they see their giving as 'community involvement' or 'community investment'. The following are some of the reasons why companies give:
To create goodwill. Companies like to be seen as good citizens and good neighbours, so they support local charities. They also like to create goodwill amongst employees.
To be associated with certain causes that relate to their business. Mining companies often like to support environmental projects, pharmaceutical companies health projects, banks economic development projects and so on.
Encouraging employees to volunteer Providing expertise and advice
Because they are asked and it is expected of them. They know that other companies also receive appeals and give their support. They will often support trade charities such as a benevolent fund or an industry research organisation; beyond that they will probably pitch their level of giving more or less at that of their rivals.
Because the Chairperson or other senior managers have a personal interest in that cause, this is particularly the case for smaller companies. Even where a company has well-established criteria for giving, if you can get a friend of the Managing Director to ask on your behalf, you are more likely to get a donation, even when your cause does not exactly fit those criteria.
Generally it is worth emphasising the sheer chaos of company giving. Few companies have any real policy for their charitable giving. Mostly they cover a wide range of good causes or attempt to deal with each appeal on its merits.
However, some companies do have a clear policy. Where policies are printed please respect them; dealing with a mass of clearly inappropriately applications is the single biggest headache in corporate giving and has caused some to consider winding-up their charitable support programmes altogether. Users (or their parents) may work for the company.
There are a variety of ways in which companies can support charities:
cash donations;
sponsorship of an event or activity;
sponsorship of promotional and educational materials;
sponsorship of an award scheme;
joint promotions, where the company contributes a donation to the charity in return for each product sold in order to encourage sales;
making company facilities available;
Secondment of a member of staff, where a member of the company's staff helps on an agreed basis whilst remaining employed (and paid) by the company;
contributing a senior member of staff to the charity's Management Board;
providing expertise and advice;
encouraging employees to volunteer;
organising a fundraising campaign amongst employees;
advertising in charity brochures and publications.
Key factors in approaching companies
Research:
Sponsorship of an award scheme
Research is very important, not just into companies, but also into personal contacts. When planning an appeal, an important first step is to find which of the people associated with your charity have influence or know people who have. If you can find a link between one of your supporters and a particular company use it.
First step is to find which of the people
One of your trustees/members may be on the board of directors or have contacts there it will Prove useful for them to write or sign the appeal letter. One of your volunteers or supporters may be an Employee of the company. Your clients/users (or their parents) may work for the company.
Alternatively, you might be able to tie your appeal in to a known personal interest of a director.
Getting in Touch:
Generally an appeal through a personal contact will work the best. But if you haven't got a contact and can see no way of developing one, then you will have to come up with another link.
As a first step you might contact the company to find out the following:
who is responsible for dealing with charitable appeals
their name and job title
what information they can send regarding their company
any procedure or timetable for submitting applications
whether they might be interested in coming to see your organisation at work.
Visits are useful when discussing bigger donations with the larger companies, but are difficult to arrange for anything small.
Almost certainly your appeal will be in the form of a letter. Make this as personal as you can. Circular letters tend to end up in the bin. Make the letter short and to the point.
Be specific in your Approach:
Rather than sending out a circular mailing to 100 or 1,000 companies, you will be more successful if you select a few companies you believe will be particularly interested in your project, and target your application to them and their policy. (Many companies will not consider circular appeals as a point of policy).
Find a good reason why you believe the company should support you and include this prominently in your letter. You may be able to relate what you are doing as a charity to companies which have some relevance to your work; for example, a childrens charity can appeal to companies, making childrens products companies, a housing charity to construction companies, building societies, etc. Any relationship, however tenuous, creates a point of contact on which you can build a good case for obtaining the company’s support. If there is no relationship, should you be approaching that company at all?
There may be occasions where a charity will not want to accept money from a company in a related companys support. If there is no relationship, should you be approaching that company at all? A health education charity may not want to accept money from a tobacco or brewery company or from the confectionery industry, or similarly an environmental group may not wish to accept a donation from a nuclear power company. These may feel that as a result of doing so they would be seen to be compromised. Similarly, a local charity might not want money from a company who has made people in the area redundant. Each charity has to judge where it draws the line.
Be clear about why you need the money:
You must be clear about the objectives of the work you are raising money for, particularly its time-scale and how it relates to your overall programme of work. Try to think in project terms rather than seeking money to cover basic administration costs. This can be difficult, because most people spend most of their money on administration in one form or another, so you need to conjure up projects out of your current activities to present to potential donors. You can build a percentage of administrative costs into the costs of the project. If you relate what you are doing to a specific time-scale, this again makes what you are applying for more of a project than a contribution to your year-on-year core costs.
Be persistent:
Do not underestimate the persistence factor. If you do not receive a donation in the first year, do not assume that the company will never support you. Go back a second and even a third time.
If you are going back, mention the fact that you have applied to them previously, perhaps saying that you are now presenting them with something different which may be (you hope) of more interest to them.
If they give you reasons for refusing support, use them to help you put in more appropriate applications in the future. If they said that they do not give to your particular type of activity then you know that it is absolutely no use your going back. If they said their funds were fully committed, you can try to find out when would be a better time to apply, (although it might only have been a convenient excuse because they did not want to give to you).
Note the response to your appeal and use any information you can glean to improve your chances the next time. People respect persistence, so it really is important to go back again and again.
How to find out which firms to approach?
The firms to approach must depend on what sort of organisation you are. If you are a national organisation then an appeal to the country's leading companies is appropriate. Local groups should approach local firms and local branches of national companies which have a presence in their area. All organisations can approach companies in allied fields: for example, theatres can appeal to fabric companies.
You will find the names and other details of companies in a whole series of useful directories and publications.
Whichever directories you are using make sure they are up-to-date copies. Company personnel and/or donations policies change regularly.
If you want gifts in kind, you should find likely suppliers of what you need. Trade associations will often provide a list of its member companies. Another idea is trade list of its member companies. Another idea is trade exhibition catalogues which give details of all exhibitors.
One big problem is the ownership of seemingly independent companies. Many companies are in fact a part of a much larger concern. In recent years there has been a substantial number of mergers and take-overs, plus the buying and selling of business between corporations. A useful source of information is the directory Who Owns Whom, which has a subsidiary index listing most subsidiaries of companies included in the guide. You can also use company annual reports, which (for most companies) can be obtained on request. These reports provide good background information on the company, and occasionally information on the company's corporate support programme. Some private (and occasionally public) companies will not send out annual reports except to shareholders; in such cases you can go to Companies House to get hold of a copy. The main offices are situated in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast and London, with satellite offices in Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester.
Finally there are national and local newspapers which can provide useful information and ideas about who to approach. Informal sources or information may include the local business school, rotary, round table, Chamber of Commerce, Business Breakfast Clubs, as well as clients of your auditor, banker, legal advisor or suppliers.
The types of Companies that give
Foreign owned multi-national companies:
Many of the large multi-nationals have global giving programmes. Some have an international structure for managing their giving with budgets set for each country and a common policy for the sorts of activity they are interested in supporting. small budget to spend on charitable projects of its choice. Others may give each country a small budget to spend on charitable projects of its choice. With others, community involvement policy remains a purely local matter for company management in the country concerned.
Leading national companies:
Many support large national charities, of which many have departments set up to raise money from companies. Some make grants through regional offices and most will give preference to charities local to their main operating sites.
Larger local companies:
In any city or region there will be large companies who are important to the local economy. These companies will often feel a responsibility to do something to support voluntary action and community initiatives in those areas, and value the good publicity that this will provide. It is a good idea to form some kind of relationship with larger companies in your area.
There are also companies that have a regional remit, such as water, electricity and television companies. The support of these companies is usually confined within these regional boundaries.
Smaller local companies:
Almost everyone is targeting the large companies, because good information is available on these for fundraisers and there is little available information on smaller local companies. Many of these are privately owned and the approach will often be through the Chairman & Chief Executive, or Managing Director, or Senior Partner. Most of these companies will have no policies about what to give to and may prefer to give in kind, for example a prize for a raffle, or a fundraising event. It might be easier to approach these companies for this sort of support in the first instance; and later on, (once they have given something), to persuade them to make a cash donation.
Constructing an Appeal Letter
Important points to consider:
Think up a project or aspect of your work that the business sector might like to support. Generally, do not appeal for administration costs or a contribution to an endowment fund (although there will be cases where this approach will succeed). Recognise that companies are likely to be interested in some ideas and not others. For exarnple, a drugs charity would be more likely to get money for education than rehabiilitation. An appreciation of the kind of projects that companies like to support will be very helpful to you.
Your letter should be as short as possible. Try to get it all on one side of A4. You can always supply other information as attachments. Company people are busy. You can help them by making your appeal letter short and to the point. It should be written clearly and concisely and be free from jargon. Someone not acquainted with what you are doing should be able to read and understand it and be persuaded to act on it. Give your letter in draft to someone outside your charity to read and comment on before finalising it and sending it out.
You should state why you need the money and exactly how it will be spent. The letter itself should be straightforward. It should include the following information (not necessarily in this order): what the organisation does and some background on how it was set up; whom the organisation serves; why the organisation needs funds; how the donation would be spent if it were to be forthcoming, and why you think the company might be interested in supporting you.
You should attempt to communicate the urgency of your appeal. Fundraising is an intensively competitive business; there is a limited amount of money to give have to ensure that some of it comes your way. If it appears that although you would like the money now it would not matter terribly much if you got it next year, this will put people off. But don't give the impression you are fundraising at the last minute. Show them you are professional and you have carefully planned your fundraising appeal. You should also try to show that your charity is well-run, efficient and cost- effective in how it operates.
Some basic do nots' when applying to Companies:
Do not write indiscriminate Dear Sir/Madam circular letters to any company you come across. Do not use any guide you may have access to as a simple mailing list. Do not write to a company which specifically says it does not support your kind of work. Do not write to a company unless at least one of the following applies:
The company has a declared policy indicating a specific interest in your group's area of work. The company operates in the same locality as your group and a clear product link exists between your needs and their supplies. You have a strong personal link with a senior company officer, or a member of their staff is actively involved in your work. There is some good reason to write to that particular company. The fact that the company makes a profit and your group needs money is not a sufficiently strong link.
You should mention why you think the company should support your cause. This could range from rather generalised notions of corporate responsibility and the creation of goodwill in the local community to much more specific advantages such as preventing children painting graffiti on their factory walls or the good publicity companies will get from supporting your cause. If the firm's generosity is to be made public, for example through advertising or any publicity arising from the gift, then emphasise the goodwill which will accrue to the company. Most companies would say that they do not require any public acknowledgement for the contributions they make, but most will appreciate and welcome this.
As for something specific: It is all too easy to make a good case and then to mumble something about needing money. Many companies, having been persuaded to give, are not sure how much to give. You can ask them to give a donation of a specific amount, (matched to what you believe their ability to contribute to be), or to contribute the cost of a particular item. You can suggest a figure by mentioning what other companies are giving. You can mention a total and say how many donations you will need to achieve this. Do not be unreasonable in your expectations. Just because a company is large and rich, it does not mean that it makes big grants.
If you can demonstrate some form of leverage this will be an added attraction. Company donations on the whole are quite modest, but companies like to feel they are having a substantial impact with the money they spend. If you can show that a small amount of money will enable a much larger project to go ahead, or will release further funds say on a matching basis from another source, this will definitely be an advantage. Having written a very short appeal letter, you can append some background support literature. This should not be a fifty-page treatise outlining your latest policies, but like your letter it should be crisp and to the point, a record of your achievements, your latest annual report, press cuttings or even a specially produced brochure to accompany your appeal.
Make sure that the letter is addressed to the correct person at or the correct address. It pays to do this background research. Keep all the information on file as it will make your job much easier next time.
If you are successful, remember to say thank you; this is an elementary courtesy which is too often forgotten. If the company gives you any substantial amount of money, then you should probably try to keep them in touch with the achievements related to their donation (such as a between the lines. Companies in trying to be polite may in brief progress report or copies of your annual report or latest publications).
If you do not succeed, go back again next year (unless they say that it is not their policy to support your type of Organisation or to give to charity at all). Persistence can pay. If you have received a donation, go back again next year. The company has demonstrated that it is interested in what you are doing and in supporting you. It may well do it again next year, especially if you had thanked them for the donation and kept them in touch with how the 'project' developed.
How Companies reply to you:
Many companies will not even reply to your appeal. A few may acknowledge receipt of your letter, and occasionally you will get thanked for your request and be told that it is being considered and you will only hear the outcome if you are successful. Up to half of the companies you approach will write back depending on the spread of the companies you approach. Larger companies have a system for dealing with charity mail, and most will see it as good PR to give a reply. Smaller companies which are not giving much charitable support will not have the time or the resources to do anything but scan the mail and throw most of it in the bin.
What sort of reply should you expect? If you do an extensive appeal, you will inevitably get a lot of refusals. These will normally be in the form of a pre-printed or word-processed letter or a postcard. Occasionally you will get an individually typed letter of reply. If they say yes, you will get a cheque or a Charities Aid Foundation Charities Trust voucher But more often they will say no.
There may be various reasons given or phrases used by a company for refusing your request. The company may not mean what it says. Funds may still be available for those appeals the company wishes to support; the company may be able to give support and just not want to; or it may not want to now or in the future. You should try to read fact be misleading you if you take what they say at face value.
The Application Letter Checklist:
Is it only one side of A4? Does it state what your link is with the company? Does it stress the benefits to the company? Is it clear why you need the money? Is it clear what you are asking for? Is it addressed to the correct contact? Is it attractive to the company? Is it endorsed?
Applying to companies
For Grant-Aid Funding Bodies Please participate in the following Poll & Questionnaire to gain evidence-based feedback:
With the help of converters and viewers from Microsoft Office Online, you can view our Microsoft Office files even if you have different versions of Office programs, or even if you do not have Office installed.
This section gives basic information for putting together applications to companies. This can very but some companies do have clear policies.
To create goodwill. Companies like to be seen as good citizens and good neighbours, so they support local charities. They also like to create goodwill amongst employees. 
The Times 1,000 
But more often they will say no.
Format]
