Charities. There’s no escaping them. They’re everywhere. Every hour of every day someone
somewhere is asking for your support – from the ‘chuggers’ in Birmingham City Centre to the
endless telethons from the likes of Children In Need, Comic Relief et al.
If you’re nodding your head in agreement, stop! Let’s rewind and think about how supporting a
charity can be a win/win – both for your chosen charity and for your business.
Supporting a charity can bring enormous positive benefits for your business, the obvious one being
the goodwill it will build between your organisation and the charity. It sends out a clear message
that you care and believe in the charity/brand that you’ve chosen to support, and if done well, will
also give you endless content for your social media posts, blogs, and positive PR stories.
STOP PRESS: supporting a charity isn’t just for big businesses with big bucks to burn.
Are you still shrugging your shoulders? Or are you starting to see the sense in benevolence?
Regardless of the size of your business, you can support a charity. You don’t need a fancy-pants
reception area to have a collection tin chained to the desk to rattle at every visitor and delivery
driver!
If you don’t know where to begin, read on.
The Golddust Marketing handy guide on how to support a charity is here.
Event Sponsorship
Charities rely heavily on sponsorship to make their fund-raising events happen. By becoming an
event sponsor you’ll not only help the charity, but it will showcase your business name within the
community. Most charity events have several sponsorship packages available – obviously, the more
you invest the greater coverage you’ll receive. If you’re looking to start small, look for opportunities
such as programme sponsorship, or sponsoring one of the key suppliers (for example the AV
equipment) as this can eat into a charities budget quite considerably. If you can align your business
with the event – even better! Maybe you’re a workwear business – so why not provide the branded
running vests for a charity run?
Donate To A Charity Auction
Auctions are becoming more and more popular at events, such as awards nights, charity balls and
the like. Does your business make a product or provide a service that someone will benefit from?
Once the auctioneer starts to wax lyrical about the lot you’ve donated, everyone in the room will be
bidding for it!
Host An Event
Macmillan Cancer Support has mastered the coffee morning. Evening year, businesses,
organisations, and individuals host a coffee morning to raise money for Macmillan. There are also
event opportunities with charities such as Cancer Research UK, Comic Relief, Sport Relief, Children In
Need – all of whom have regular, national fund-raising events. Looking a bit closer to home, is there
a smaller charity in your area that needs all the help it can get? It doesn’t have to be a black-tie ball
event – a low-key bake sale or coffee morning will raise money if promoted in the right way. Just
don’t forget to invite someone from the charity itself!
Donate Your Space
What happens to your premises when you go home for the evening? Do you have a space that you
could donate for a charity to use? You’re already paying rent and business rates on the building so
why leave it empty? In-kind donations are a great way to get involved with supporting a charity, to
do something positive and to bring new people through your doors who may have completely
overlooked you in the past.
Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
Entering a team from your business into a charity event is a way to create a bond within your team,
plus the competitiveness will make them work harder for sponsorship and bragging rights!
Customised branded t-shirts, local press coverage and the event day itself will make your business
visible to spectators and fellow competitors – as well as giving you even more content for your social
media platforms and website.
We hope that’s made you think a bit more about supporting a charity through your business. The
only thing that remains now is for you to choose which charity to support.
Keep us informed of any charitable events you take part in via our social media channels. We can’t
wait to see your shenanigans!