Corporate social engagement

Fundraisers are becoming increasingly professional and sophisticated when it comes to forming partnerships with commercial organisations and also when raising money from them. Corporate donors now are expressing growing interest in what fundraisers have to offer in terms of mutual benefit for their marketing objectives and as they seek to fulfil their obligations in terms of their corporate social responsibility. Is corporate fundraising all it’s cracked up to be? Are companies the best route to the many thousands of potential individual donors that they employ? If so, how should you go about fundraising from the corporate sector and where are the best opportunities?

Home for Hope: using IKEA furniture displays to advertise homeless dogs

by SOFII

Small organisations simply don’t have the budget to promote their cause and have to come up with innovative solutions. This inventive campaign in Singapore started with Home for Hope with help from IKEA and demonstrated how you can make your house a home by adopting a dog.

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Lessons from a charity shop

by Laura Croudace

Do you think that charity shops are not ‘pure’ fundraising, in fact, aren’t fundraising at all? During a stroll in the sunshine, Laura Croudace came across a charity shop that, in her words, ‘blew me away’. Click here to see how and why she thinks we could all learn from FARA’s approach to running shops.

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The UNICEF partnership with the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games

by Joe Jenkins

UNICEF's partnership with the Glasgow Commonwealth Games was the first time the opening ceremony of a global major sporting event was used by a charity to raise money: £3.7 million during that evening alone, much of it by texts from people in the audience.

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DEBRA’s epidermolysis bullosa (EB) Ireland awareness day 2014

by Craig Linton

Click here to see how DEBRA Ireland made their logo work hard for them. By telling a powerful story as well and investing a small budget they raised a lot of money, gained new supporters and raised awareness of their cause.

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Unbound: the reinvention of an idea that flourished 200 years ago

by Aline Reed

This is a strange one. It the reinvention of an idea that was flourishing two hundred years ago, yet has left the notion of 'traditional' charities behind. Maybe even the sponsors don't see themselves as donors, but it's clear that this scheme contains all the ingredients of good fundraising – tangible need, a target, donor reward, donor recognition and the chance to support again.

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The Magic Bus: corporate customers pay for a facility that helps poor kids

by SOFII

How corporate customers enable an innovative charity to raise money to pay for a unique development facility for disadvantaged youngsters.

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United Way for Southeast Michigan (UWSEM): lessons from a $27.1 million corporate gift

by Marie Burnett

United Way successfully shifted their fundraising model from transactional to relational and from obligation giving to inspired giving. In the process they turned around a five year trend of decreasing contributions from workforce campaigns with the largest donation to a single project.

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New research shows how charities can create remarkable corporate partnerships

This year Innocent and Age UK are aiming to knit one million hats.

by Remarkable Partnerships

Remarkable Partnerships, a new report from Jonathon Andrews shows that when charities and companies partner in a remarkable way they deliver huge impact, have wider reach, create more opportunities and last longer. Read SOFII’s summary here. Then get the full report, free.

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SOS Children’s Villages Belgium: a corporate partnership aimed at six people

by SOFII

An ingenious idea from SOS Children’s Villages that went for the ‘one per cent’ with this newspaper ad. It has superb and courageous targeting – just six people – is, challenging, innovative and was very successful.

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Oxfam and Marks and Spencer’s schwopping partnership

by SOFII

This partnership between Oxfam UK and Marks and Spencer is fulfilling the needs of people in the UK and developing countries. The planet is a winner too.

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Four tips that can help land corporate donations

Community is very important to both companies and their employees.

by Robert Bellovin

Raising money from commercial organisations is a bit like Marmite – you either love it, or hate it. But you can’t deny it that it does raise money. If you’re thinking about putting a toe in the water – check out this article that is full of advice for practitioners on how to go about it.

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UNICEF UK: ‘own a colour’ appeal

by Jonathan Andrews

This campaign run jointly by UNICEF UK and the paint company Dulux raised £52,000 in the first day. And the company paid all the costs.

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