A gift is more than you think

Rarely a month passes that our company doesn’t receive a request for our time or money. I’m a strong proponent of giving, and we most frequently provide massages and other wellness services at our center or in home or business settings. Giving has been a high-priority activity for the ten years we’ve been in business.

Over the years I have become very well acquainted with donation requests, and they generally fall into two categories: they are either clearly stated and well organized or they are vague and somehow fail to link the benefits of giving to the request being made.

For your requests to succeed, you need to make sure that they are articulate and demonstrate the benefits to the giving organization. Explain the purpose of the request, how the donation will be used to achieve a goal, and how the person or business will benefit by giving. Covering these three requirements will bring more success in your solicitations.

Over time, you will find yourself approaching the same people multiple times. This task can be challenging because, no matter how noble your cause, you cannot expect the same business to support more than its fair share of your needs. Therefore, it is necessary to be creative when asking people to part with their time and/or money.

The first fact you must present is that your organization has credibility. Belief in an organization is most often the first consideration people make in deciding whether to donate. Even the Red Cross, notably credible, lost a lot of credibility when people learned that it was holding back 9-11 funds in order to use them for future projects. Be honest.

A second need is to address what benefits the donor will gain. Though it sounds contradictory to the idea of charity, showing people how they will be better off for giving will help convince them to donate. There is a reason, after all, that the government provides tax breaks for donations to reputable institutions. People receive emotional benefits for giving to something they know is honest and good and monetary benefits for their own financial situation. My mother has always taught me that giving unselfishly brings returns of even greater value, and she is right. I have a lovely family and life, and I continue to give.

A third idea, a subcategory of the previous one, is that charity sells. Most of the biggest companies give millions of dollars every year. You know that benevolence is not driven purely by a need to feel good about themselves – it is because the attention that comes with charity brings favorable views on the company. McDonalds may have issues relating to the health of its customers, but they can point to the Ronald McDonald Houses to offset the negative publicity they sometimes receive.

To address charity on a more local level, away from multi-million dollar businesses, make your charitable requests interesting to the smaller businesses that may not immediately see the benefit of giving. You might offer them exclusive rights to showcase their name all over the event. Another idea is “gift pollination,” taking a small gift and helping it grow. For example, imagine you need $500 worth of graphic artwork done but don’t have the money. Ask a restaurant for a $200 gift certificate, but put something towards it yourself. If you offer them $75 for the $200 certificate, you will more likely be successful because they see you are making an effort and you are helping offset their costs (perhaps they break even this way and there is no money out of pocket for them). Then you can do the same thing with the graphic artist, i.e. offer them a $200 gift certificate in exchange for $500 worth of work. Again, you cover their costs, they only give time and let go of the profit, and you have pollinated successfully. For $75, two companies have received positive advertising and you have the $500 of graphic artwork you need!

It might seem that people should give for no reason, but with so many charities popping up these days, it behooves organizations to be a bit more aggressive in order to succeed with their donation requests.

Charitable donations make the world more productive, but to be successful we all need to use our minds’ creative powers. Imagine yourself on the receiving end of requests before you make requests so that you can better understand where the other person is coming from, and there is no limit to what you can receive for just a little time, creativity, and commitment to your projects.