Corporate fundraising is where businesses and private companies raise money for charity and donate to good causes. Often it is in the form of cash or an in-kind gift to a charity.

You can take part in corporate fundraising much easier than you may first assume, with every business having opportunities to branch out with your community to make a difference.

We know that the cost-of-living crisis has hit everyone hard, but particularly charities and causes who are facing a “Cost of Giving” crisis. One in five charities say that they were “severely worried” that their funds would suffer so much, that they might not be able to continue providing their services in the future.

We know how much businesses care about helping those around them, so we want to highlight the good you can do by getting your workplace involved in corporate fundraising.

There are many reasons why businesses and corporations choose to fundraise. It gives them an opportunity to create a meaningful dialogue about their social values and responsibilities as an organisation.

Employees, and potential employees, can buy in to fundraising initiatives, but it’s also a chance for the business to showcase its values with stakeholders, investors and wider society.

When corporate fundraising is done well, it provides an opportunity to elicit real social change through the charities companies choose to support.

easyfundraising is a simple and easy route to effective corporate fundraising that can bring your team together to work for a good cause charity.

We give you a free, quick and hassle-free way to make corporate donations without it impacting on the daily running of your business. You can raise free donations for charity with your business’ online shopping, rallying your team together to donate at no cost to you.

There are many key benefits of corporate fundraising. These include supporting causes you care about. You can help make effective social change to causes that mean something to your stakeholders and employees.

Helping the community is also a great way of giving to schools, sports clubs and community groups in your local area where you can boost the local community. You will also be able to directly see the impact of your fundraising efforts.

Improving the reputation of your business is a vital aspect of corporate fundraising too. If you’re a philanthropic company, it shows to the public that you’re a business that cares and can be trusted.

The same applies with enhancing employee engagement, ensuring your staff know you care. Raising money for charity makes people happy, and happier people are more productive. If your business gives to good causes regularly, it helps people feel proud of where they work and proud that the organisation is doing good in the world. This can help boost staff retention and help you attract employees too.

Another benefit of corporate fundraising is building company loyalty. By continuing to raise funds for good causes, you will hopefully build company loyalty across your employees, stakeholders and with the local community.

Yet, while there are multiple benefits to corporate fundraising, there are challenges too. People across the business may buy in to the idea of fundraising, but their day-to-day jobs can easily get in the way. Planning large scale corporate fundraising events can help boost your fundraising credentials, but they can be labour intensive and they cost money too. Plus, you’ll be asking people to sacrifice their spare time or take time out of their working days.

However, with easyfundraising you can simply select the charity you’d like to support, and each time you shop online you can make a difference to your chosen cause.

It isn’t just international or national charities that you can support through easyfundraising. We also give your business the opportunity to give to local sports clubs, community groups and schools in your area.

By selecting one of these organisations as your chosen cause when you shop online with us, you can boost your ties with the local community and give back to the people around you.

Photo by Peter Boccia on Unsplash

Read more:
Why your business should get involved in corporate fundraising

Being part of a successful business and having a positive impact doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive.

SMEs can engage with their corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals easier than you may think, all by making small changes that can amount to effective results without being paralysed by the thought of CSR.

CSR is the efforts your business makes towards improving society and contributing towards a better world. It’s a self-regulating model where you hold yourself accountable to yourself, your stakeholders and the general public. With CSR, you take responsibility for the impact your business makes on a range of issues from human rights to the environment.

One of the key aspects of CSR is philanthropy which can involve charity fundraising. Integrating your CSR activities with your fundraising makes sense but only if it’s done well.

Every company has CSR goals they aspire to achieve and this shouldn’t be seen as an impossible task but rather an ambitious one. The level of commitment to your goals will define how you’re going to engage with them, especially when this comes to charity giving.

Small businesses up and down the country raise significant amounts of money for good causes every day, with this being far easier than often assumed. Committing to your CSR also doesn’t have to be overly expensive or tedious as so many believe, by dedicating yourself to these goals they can be effective and have worthwhile outcomes for your business.

Committing to CSR will amplify your business’ reputation and this can be done through fundraising. This is a vital way to boost awareness of your business in your community and further afield. Put simply, people like to buy from businesses that do good in the world.

Your reputation as a good business also goes beyond your customer base. When it comes to hiring and retaining employees, it really helps. People want to be associated with a company that’s striving to make a difference in the world. Plus, if people are given an opportunity to raise funds themselves, take time out of their work to give back to a charity or get involved in company fundraising events, it enhances their working lives. This in turn can boost the happiness and motivation of your employees.

Your CSR activities need to align with your business values and the way you operate your organisation. What good are you trying to do in the world? CSR can’t be a token gesture and you need to be able to hold your business accountable.

Once you have committed to your CSR goals don’t jump ahead to choosing what charity events you’re going to put on or which charities to support, look at your business values.

Are you all about the people in your organisation and making their lives better? Ask yourself, how can you then make the lives of the people in your local community better through your charity fundraising? Are you trying to become a greener business with the way you run day to day and across your supply chain? Can you then give to environmental charities or support environmental initiatives in your local area through your charity fundraising?

One way of acting on your values and plan to work towards your CSR is corporate fundraising. This is where businesses and private companies raise money for charity and donate to good causes. Often it is in the form of cash or an in-kind gift to a charity, easyfundraising raises these as micro donations that collectively make a big difference to charities and causes.

There are many reasons why businesses and corporations choose to fundraise. It gives them an opportunity to create a meaningful dialogue about their social values and responsibilities as an organisation, as well as allowing micro donations to build up for your cause.

Employees, and potential employees, can buy in to fundraising initiatives, but it’s also a chance for the business to showcase its values with stakeholders, investors and wider society. When corporate fundraising is done well, it provides an opportunity to elicit real social change through the charities companies choose to support.

For effective CSR, charity fundraising without a business commitment doesn’t work. For example, if you’re supporting an environmental charity without putting in the hard work to change how you run as a business. Or if you’re raising money to help people in your local community, but you’re not looking after the people in your company properly.

For CSR and charity fundraising to effectively coexist, your business has to walk the walk every day too.

Remember, businesses of any size can fundraise for charity. Just because your business is small it doesn’t mean you can’t make a big impact. With the right goals and objectives, well-planned fundraising events be hugely successful.

Through easyfundraising lots of companies have raised thousands, particularly small businesses who do their online shopping on our giving platform, with their micro donations adding up to have a real impact on their chosen charity.

Read more:
How to engage with your CSR goals this year