4 Best Practices to Make Your Fundraising Events CSR-Savvy

As a nonprofit professional at a small organization, you’re always on the lookout for strategies to maximize fundraising success. Focusing on your supporters is always a good choice. With proper stewardship, a volunteer can turn into a donor, a one-time donor can turn into a recurring donor, and a major donor may make a large gift to further your cause.

But there’s another pool of support you can tap into to increase your fundraising success: corporations. Through corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, you can position yourself to receive a great deal of financial support from businesses. After all, the top 10 corporations alone donate $2 billion annually to nonprofits.

There are plenty of ways charitable organizations can leverage corporate social responsibility to garner the funds they need to power their missions. This guide will focus on how to make your fundraising events CSR-savvy to maximize your fundraising potential. With these strategies, you’ll confidently tap into businesses and their employees to gain their support.

1. Research common CSR programs.

According to Double the Donation, corporate social responsibility describes a company’s efforts to improve society in some way. These efforts can take many forms, including cash donations to nonprofit causes or implementing environmentally friendly practices (such as a gym disposing of old running shoes in an eco-friendly manner).

Before you can make your fundraising events CSR-savvy, you need to know the most relevant programs for events. Here are a few examples:

• Matching gifts. In this CSR program, employers match donations their employees make to nonprofits, usually at a 1:1 ratio. That means if an employee donates $50, their employer will also donate $50, resulting in a total of $100 for you.

• Volunteer grants. To incentivize employees to volunteer at nonprofits, some businesses offer volunteer grants. For these grants, the business will make a donation based on the number of hours employees volunteer at your nonprofit.

• Sponsorships. Sponsorships are one of the most widely discussed CSR programs. Usually, a business will sponsor a nonprofit to help meet a certain goal, such as fundraising for a specific program or filling out the budget for an event. In return, the nonprofit will promote the sponsor’s products or services.

• In-kind donations. Some businesses will make non-financial donations to support a nonprofit. This could take the form of a large corporation donating office supplies to an organization that’s just starting out or a consulting firm that donates their services to a nonprofit in need of them.

While there are plenty of other CSR programs, including scholarships and employee product donation programs, it’s up to you to determine which ones are most beneficial for your fundraising events. Once you develop a strong understanding of those, you can start tailoring your fundraising event strategy to secure corporate support.

2. Design events that are CSR-friendly.

The first step to designing CSR-savvy events is to research local businesses and corporations to get a sense of what their CSR programs look like. Since these are the companies whose employees are most likely to attend your event, this helps you maximize the impact of your event.

In particular, pay attention to their CSR goals and priorities. These might include:

• Environmental sustainability

• Education

• Health and wellness

• Diversity and inclusion

• Community engagement

Structure your fundraising events based on this information. For instance, if many businesses in your community have volunteer programs, then you may benefit from a series of volunteering events or dedicated volunteer days. You might also look into revamping your volunteer management process to ensure that corporate volunteers have a positive experience at these events, making them more likely to return.

While a business is more likely to support your organization and advocate for its employees to support you if your mission aligns with its CSR priorities, it doesn’t mean you’re out of luck if your mission doesn’t align.

Let’s say you’re on the team of an animal shelter nonprofit dedicated to rescuing and rehoming strays. Even though local businesses might not have animal welfare on their list of CSR priorities, you could host a marathon or a fun run fundraiser, which targets health and wellness and community engagement priorities. Plus, you could take Sneakers4Good’s recommendation and recycle running shoes with a sneaker collection, helping you gain the attention of businesses prioritizing environmental sustainability.

3. Solicit corporate sponsors for your events.

While soliciting sponsorships may require your nonprofit to put in more effort than you would need for other CSR programs, the reward is well worth it, as a successful sponsorship solicitation may result in a large amount of funds you otherwise would not have received. Just as your nonprofit must conduct prospect research to identify major donor prospects, you must strategically target businesses for event sponsorship solicitations.

Start by pinpointing businesses that:

• Are local to your nonprofit. As mentioned, if your nonprofit is small, you likely don’t have the resources to contact many potential sponsors. Begin with charitable-minded businesses in your community, as they have the incentive to help local nonprofits improve their community.

• Operate in a similar vertical. Businesses that operate in a similar vertical to your nonprofit will be more likely to sponsor your events. For example, if you work for an animal shelter, pet stores, pet grooming, and vet businesses are great potential sponsors. Or, if your nonprofit is a food pantry that provides meals to those in need, you might reach out to restaurants, grocery stores, and other food-related businesses.

• Previous sponsorship history. There are many ways to tell if a business will be open to sponsoring your fundraising event—aside from having dedicated CSR programs. Previous sponsorship history is also a great indicator. Send messages to these businesses to maximize your chances of earning a sponsorship.

Once you pinpoint these businesses, connect with them via phone or email to set up a meeting and request their support. Ahead of this meeting, prepare documents that list key information about your event, what a sponsorship will entail, and what the sponsor will receive in exchange for their sponsorship.

For example, let’s say you’re hosting a Halloween Run and decide to reach out to a local gym for sponsorship. You might ask them for $1,000 to help cover event costs. In exchange, you can add their logo to your marketing materials, pass out pamphlets with more details about their facilities to event participants, and thank them during your end-of-event speech to help them increase gym memberships.

4. Market CSR opportunities to your audience.

Aside from soliciting sponsorships to increase event funding, you can also target the corporate employees within your audience, especially those employed by companies with CSR programs, to maximize the funds your event generates. That means that you must market CSR opportunities to your supporter base.

Start by increasing awareness of these programs—after all, with $4-7 billion in matching gift funds going unclaimed each year, it’s clear that lack of knowledge is an obstacle. Corporate employees are likely already making donations or volunteering at your nonprofit. You just need to inform them that their employers’ CSR programs allow them to make an even bigger impact on your nonprofit. Send email newsletters about corporate philanthropy or invite event volunteers to apply for volunteer grants from their employers.

Aside from incorporating information about CSR in your event communications, you should also bake this information into your everyday marketing efforts. Start with an employer append to help you identify which individuals are employed at businesses with strong CSR programs. Then, segment your supporters based on their employers’ CSR programs and promote CSR opportunities accordingly.

CSR programs are a win-win, as they allow businesses to improve employee engagement and nonprofits to successfully meet their fundraising goals. It’s well worth it for your nonprofit to prioritize making your events CSR-savvy to streamline the process of acquiring corporate support for your mission.