Help a Local Charity to Help Your Business

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By Jean McIntyre

Small businesses rely on the local community to survive and so isn’t it only right that businesses think about giving back to that community? It’s all about economic and social sustainability.

I got a call a couple of weeks ago from a woman who belongs to Bosom Buddies.  It’s a group that provides support to women who have been diagnosed with Breast Cancer.  She said the organisation is really struggling to generate sufficient funds to do the great work they do.

It started me thinking about all those little community organisations that have to compete with the huge national charities that get all the press that pulls people’s heartstrings.  The local organisations do such good work an it often goes “unsung”.  Hartley Lifecare, Focus ACT, ACT Eden Monaro Cancer Support, Tandem Respite, Gallilee just to name a few.  There are loads more that help our community in many different ways.

I asked my new Bosom Buddy what was the most difficult thing about raising funds for the organisation.  She said:

“There is a great deal of promotion about national breast cancer groups that raise money:

• National Breast Cancer Foundation (funds for research)
• The McGrath Foundation (funds for specialist breast care nurses)
• Dragons Abreast (funds to support their activities)
• Cancer Council Girls’ Night In (funds go to research)

Businesses have told us there is already a lot of support for breast cancer.  What they don’t seem to see is that our work is all done in the community for the community.   None of the national organisations or governments funds local groups that give direct support to individuals and families.  No other registered groups provide the range of services we do, including individual support, informative workshops, networking events and opportunities to do projects with other survivors.”

I think if you asked some of the other charities that question you’d get a similar answer.  The big charities have lots of cash – they can afford ads on TV, they get attention from journalists and they are the first organisations that businesses think of when they decide to help out the community.

The little local ones have to be content with the scraps from the table.

Community Organisations Help Businesses as Well

I did a survey a while ago and discovered that local Canberra businesses sponsor community organisations for a combination of personal and business reasons.  I interpret this to mean that while they give from the heart – they are also thinking about what it can do to help their business.

The reality is that there are just hundreds of equivalently worthy organisations out there that a single community-minded business might want to help.  So how can you choose between them?  You choose the one that will deliver the best results for your business. That’s quite appropriate.

Community organisations can offer a lot to help a business.  Take Bosom Buddies for example.

They have a broad spectrum of members – women age 20 to 80 but they also have lots of supporters and helpers that they communicate with regularly through their newsletter and events.  These include: GPs, surgeons, oncologists, oncology technicians and nurses, specialist breast care nurses, lymphoedema physiotherapists and massage specialist.  They also communicate regularly with politicians. government organisations, business associations as well as other social groups.

It’s possible that you and the community organisation have the same target market which of course represents a great opportunity for promotion of your business as a supporter.

Opportunities for Promotion

Community organisations can sometimes offer innovative ways for you to connect with  your target market.  For example:

• Advertising opportunities – in newsletters and magazines, at events and on websites
• Branding opportunities – at events, on uniforms and with merchandise
• Communications opportunities – in emails or by direct mail to members or supporters; speaking engagements
• Publicity opportunities – joint media events, good stories for the media

Don’t be shy about asking organisations what they can do to help you promote your organisation to your target market.  You can also make suggestions that they may not have considered before.

How Can You Help?

The simplest way to help a worthy organisation that helps your community is to write a cheque.  Most organisations will have some kind of sponsorship agreement that spells out how they will help you with promotion.  $2,000 to $5,000 is a good start.

If you are cash poor – there are also other ways that you can help out.  Keep in mind though that the size of your sponsorship will determine the access you get to promotional opportunities.

Here are some things that Bosom Buddies said would really help out – particularly if you are a graphic designer, bookkeeper, accountant or writer:

1. brochures,
2. bookmarks (lists of relevant websites),
3. shopping bags for Breast Care Nurses who fill them with relevant information for each surgery patient
4. banner for fundraising and other events
5. venue for major events
6. pro-bono writing of newsletter and other communications
7. provision of entertainment for our member events
8. provision of office supplies
9. re-design of our aging website
10. payment of telephone bills
11. provision free of bookkeeping services
12. funding of required annual audit

Sign Up to Help Out

It’s thinking about these issues that led me to start up my new venture Sponsors Select. It’s a place where community organisations can go to register their needs and businesses can search for organisations that match their needs.

If you like it’s a dating service for businesses and community organisations.  Businesses pay a small fee to connect with their chosen organisation and a wonderful relationship commences.

It’s  just a matter of wanting to help then working out creative ways that you can use the resources of your organisation to do it.  I’d love to hear your views on the whole community sponsorship issue.

Jean Mc

PS:  If you’d like to help women diagnosed with Breast Cancer – contact Sally Saunders at Bosom Buddies right now.