3 Ways Healthcare Organizations Can Access Corporate Giving
From grateful patient programs to crowdfunding, healthcare organizations run a wide range of fundraisers to gather the revenue they need to keep their vital services operational. However, some hospitals and healthcare organizations might be overlooking a potentially lucrative source of funding: corporate giving.
Many businesses have corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, and donating to worthy causes, like healthcare institutions, is often a key part of these initiatives. And although some businesses require nonprofits to build relationships with them to earn donations, plenty of others have open funding programs that nonprofits simply have to apply for.
To help your healthcare organization connect with these companies and access new sources of revenue, this guide will explore three ways you can tap into corporate giving programs.
1. Join a CSR database.
To encourage their employees to participate in workplace giving programs, many businesses leverage CSR software. These tools help businesses facilitate various types of corporate giving, such as volunteer grants, matching gifts, and payroll giving. Additionally, they often have a database of verified nonprofits that employees can browse to find reputable charitable organizations.
To earn support from CSR programs, your healthcare organization needs to be featured in these databases.
Uncommon Giving outlines the steps nonprofits can take to register their organization with a CSR database:
- Fill out a registration form and/or verify your profile. Once you identify a CSR database you would like your healthcare organization to be featured in, look up your nonprofit to check if a profile already exists. In some cases, large nonprofits will already have profiles created for them. If your nonprofit has a profile, you’ll still need to complete a registration form verifying your organization is the same as the one in the profile.
- Confirm your nonprofit’s information. The registration form will ask for basic information about your nonprofit, such as its name, EIN, website, and contact details.
- Get verified. The CSR database will review your registration form, and if all the information checks out, it will send you a welcome email with instructions for how to update your profile and start engaging donors.
Through your new CSR database profile, you can connect with donors looking to give through corporate giving programs as well as individual DAFs. While you should still practice donor recognition and aim to build relationships with these supporters, the CSR database will handle donation processing and distribute donation receipts on your behalf.
Additionally, CSR databases are usually free to join, meaning registering your healthcare organization will provide a new communication and networking channel at no cost. Take advantage of this opportunity by collecting data on your new donors so you can continue engaging them on other platforms.
2. Leverage corporate giving programs.
Once your healthcare organization has connected with CSR databases, you can start pursuing corporate giving opportunities in earnest. A few popular programs to make your supporters aware of include:
- Matching gifts. In a matching gift program, when employees donate, their employers match their gifts, usually at a 1:1 ratio. Some matching gift programs even have higher match ratios and donation ceilings for specific types of nonprofit causes, like education and healthcare.
- Volunteer grants. When supporters volunteer at your hospital or healthcare organization, they may also be able to generate funding for your cause through corporate volunteer grants.
- Volunteer time off. It can be challenging for individuals who work full-time to find the time to volunteer. Fortunately, through volunteer time off (VTO) programs, employees can take time off specifically to volunteer.
- Payroll giving. Some businesses allow employees to turn donating into a set-it-and-forget-it action through payroll giving. This program allows employees to donate a portion of their paycheck to a nonprofit of their choice automatically. To ensure donors have the option to give to your healthcare organization, you will need to be part of CSR databases and form relationships with businesses that offer these programs.
Chances are that several of your supporters are eligible for these corporate giving programs, but are unaware of them. Educate your donors about these opportunities through your email newsletter, social media, and website, and encourage them to research if they qualify for one.
You can also invest in software of your own to increase donor participation in these initiatives. For instance, nonprofit matching gift software adds a search tool to your donation page that allows supporters to enter their employer’s name and immediately be paired with their matching gift program information.
3. Develop corporate relationships.
If your healthcare organization is hoping to receive a major donation from a corporation, you’ll need to cultivate relationships with key decision makers at that business first. While the corporate giving programs we’ve discussed so far can boost your annual revenue, you may also want to seek larger, individualized gifts like:
- Sponsorships. If your healthcare organization is hosting an event, corporate sponsors can lend all types of support, including monetary donations, venue space, and free services like catering or entertainment.
- Cause marketing support. Some businesses want to tie their products or services closely to philanthropic causes. In a cause marketing campaign, the business will promise to donate a percentage of sales of a specific product or service to your nonprofit. Seeing that their purchase supports a good cause, consumers are likely to buy from the business, creating a win-win scenario for your organization and corporate partner.
- Matching grants. Matching grants are a type of corporate giving where a business agrees to match all donations your nonprofit raises in a specified time frame. 360MatchPro explains that the main differences between matching grants and matching gifts are that matching gifts are awarded on an individual donor-by-donor basis by various businesses, whereas matching grants are made by one company and encompass all gifts contributed during a set time.
To position your nonprofit to earn these types of funding, start building corporate relationships. Research corporations that might be amenable to supporting your healthcare organization to learn about their values and requirements.
A few factors to look for when assessing potential corporate partners include:
- Existing relationships. While you can build relationships from the ground up, it’s far easier to secure initial meetings if you have some sort of in. Consider if anyone at your healthcare organization already has a connection to a business. This might be board members with community ties, grateful patients who have business connections, or even a group of donors who all work for the same company.
- Philanthropic history and values. Businesses want to publicize their philanthropic work to boost their reputations. This means that most corporations that participate in corporate giving publish their philanthropic values and examples of past charitable activity on their websites. Look for corporations that have values aligned with healthcare and have supported healthcare organizations in the past.
- Benefits for the business. Corporate giving is ultimately a business decision. Identify businesses with audiences similar to your donor base. Then, when pitching a corporate partnership to these businesses, you can emphasize your healthcare organization’s ability to get the business’s name in front of potential customers.
Building corporate relationships can take time and several meetings. Ensure you have a solid case for support that explains what your healthcare organization will do with the business’s contribution and how a partnership benefits both parties.
From volunteer grants to matching gifts to payroll giving, corporate giving opportunities can provide your hospital or healthcare organization with essential extra revenue. Set your organization up to receive this funding by connecting with CSR databases and investing in tools that help supporters participate in their employers’ giving programs.
