Comments on: Business Giving vs Individual Giving

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:19:19 +0000

I’ve had a few businesses give to our cause. Both of them that have given to the campaign in the past do so because they either know me or have connections to my folks. I still have a lot of work to do in this area, and look forward to completing that work in the future. Thanks for the help in this area as it should help me figure out who to work on the most (speaking purely in non-personal terms).

By: Jason Dick

Jason Dick — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:24:28 +0000

Great question Christi. I would try and network with whoever you have the very best connection. If you do not have a good connection try and connect as high up as you can start with the CEO or President and if that doesn’t work try another executive or middle management. The marketing office can be a great place to go for cause marketing partnerships and sponsorships. Another good entry point can be the HR office see if they would help connect you to do some kind of employee campaign or employee volunteering event.

By: Paul Dunn

Paul Dunn — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:27:02 +0000

Your so right about the as yet untapped power of Business GIving.

To us at B1G1, Business Giving, (particularly within the SME space), is a major untapped resource for change. SMEs typically don’t have the resources to set up a CSR ‘Department’ – and interestingly enough most CSR Departments in larger companies are tacked onto the business rather than embedded into the corporate DNA.

But back to the main point about the power of SMEs to alter the face of giving.

At Buy1GIVE1 (B1G1) we focus on this sector giving them specific tools and resources (plus 600 projects worldwide) to work with.

Further, we seek not just to get the giving going but to create a world full of giving. That’s crazy isn’t it? Yet we’re emboldened by Steve Jobs’ great quote about being crazy – “…… the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

So in the Buy1GIVE1 world, it’s about using transaction-based giving and what we call action-based giving to deliver impact. it’s about committing a small part of every transaction to give back in a resonant way – for example, buy a tv, a cataract-blind person gets sight; by a coffee, a child gets access to water; buy a book, a tree gets planted.

See more at B1G1 – http://www.b1g1.com – and let’s keep the dialogue going – it’s a really important one.

By: Christi

Christi — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:54:21 +0000

Hi Jason,

What would your strategy be for collaborating with these businesses that may not have a corpoate philanthropy office? Would you reach out to the marketing team and pitch your idea? Would you openly tell them your idea from the beginning or build a relationship with the company first?