Corporate fundraising is the term used for gaining funding through commercial partnerships. This could be through a grant, sponsorship, brand endorsement or employee fundraising.
Companies that have a corporate social responsibility programme may have their own projects that they like to support, or sometimes they choose projects which are suggested by members of staff through an official company process. There are some companies that are also open to applications for grants and these operate more like a grant-making trust with a formal application process.
Sponsorship is usually supported through a company to fund the costs (or contribute towards the cost) of an activity, event, product, or service run by the NGO. This might include the donation of ‘gifts in kind’ for example, products that the company might already manufacture or produce, or it may be a simple cheque for a specific amount of money that helps towards the running of an event or product.
The brand endorsement is when a company allows an NGO or humanitarian cause to help promote its products which are related to the company business in some way. This might be something like a mineral water company working in partnership with an NGO that promotes access to water such as WaterAid.
Employee fundraising is when you can persuade a commercial company to ‘adopt’ an NGO to support, and then make this into a corporate strategy that transcends across the company to raise funds for a specific cause. Employees then raise money for the cause through a series of events, activities, and challenges. organised by themselves and donating the amount raised to the NGO to support its work.
