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Strategic giving

Make sponsorship and charitable support a valuable part of your marketing toolkit

Anyone who is at all interested in sport or the arts cannot fail to notice that on a national and international level big brands are big on sponsorship. Take that down a few stages and you will also recognise that many local events, causes, and initiatives receive ongoing support from business.

Whether or not they really want to, most firms find themselves parting with some cash over the course of the year in respect of sponsorship, charitable giving or ‘support advertising’ for a worthy cause. Why? Often because they were asked to and couldn’t think of a reason to say ‘no’.

So – is your firm just distributing largesse on an ad-hoc basis, or is your giving, as it should be, part of your strategic marketing plan?

At this point you may feel cynicism rearing its ugly head. Why after all, does everything have to have a pay off? Can’t it be that it is just better to give than receive? Absolutely – on a certain level. But such an approach fails to recognise that the most beneficial scenario for the recipient is one which creates a win-win situation for both partners.

Above and beyond the nice warm cosy feeling that giving creates, active commitment to a cause, individual, or event which is closely aligned to your firm’s values will create a situation where you are inclined to give more, more enthusiastically, over a long period of time.

Turn a big problem into a huge opportunity

Most of us receive numerous requests for charitable donations, sponsorship, and ‘help’. They’re all worthy and important to someone, if not particularly to you. So how to choose?

First, take a strategic approach. For numerous reasons, if utilised correctly, this can be a hugely significant area of activity for your firm:
It’s a great differentiator – your firm can become known as ‘those people who support X&Y’.
It can be good for teamwork – bringing people together from different levels and across departments to focus on supporting an external cause.
It may provide superb networking opportunities –functions, committee meetings, or fund-raising events at which you’ll form relationships with other businesses and potential clients
It can be a superb source of publicity and a way of raising and maintaining your profile, often over a long period of time.

Where and who?

The type of support you might provide can be short, medium or long-term; one off or ongoing; financial or practical; local regional, national, or even international.

The key point is to find what’s right for your firm; something which your people are sufficiently interested in and committed to. Don’t think too small. Your local playschool may be a great cause but your involvement probably won’t make that much difference to either them or you.

Planning and policy

It’s important that you plan and devise a policy about who you’re going to support and how much you’re going to spend. Once you’ve decided, stick with it, or you’ll soon find your energies and commitment being spread too thin.

Canvass the issue within the firm – with a representative selection of people, rather than just senior management
Agree objectives – why are you doing this and what do you expect to get out of it?
Come up with some idea of budget, both in terms of time and money (although this is an area where volunteers can reasonably be expected to put in some of their own time for free).
Find out what causes your people are already involved with – there are bound to be more than you expected and some will be quite a surprise!
Pull together a working party and let them do the research and plan the way forward
Get a vote from everyone in the firm on what cause/s to go with. Ideally start with just one.
Discuss with the external coordinators of the cause how you can maximise the opportunities your involvement creates.
Tell people, regularly, about what you’re doing and what you’d like them to do – you may even find you have clients who want to become involved.

Finally, remember that generally employees value highly an employer who gives something back. It is one of the key indicators for success in the prestigious Sunday Times 100 best companies to work for Awards.

Further information

Check out these websites to find out more:

Arts and Business www.aandb.org.uk

Business in the Community www.bitc.org.uk

Princes Trust www.princes-trust.org.uk

Volunteers – www.timebank.org.uk

General sponsorship opportunities www.uksponsorship.com

Also – speak to your local Council, Business Link, Chamber of Commerce or even Library – all should have plenty of information about sponsorship opportunities, and how to go about pursuing them.