It’s a Win-Win! Why & How Small Businesses Support Nonprofits in this Tough Economy

The recession is in full tilt! And, as a nonprofit, it often can seem downright uncomfortable to make an ask to a local firm that is struggling to maintain its business.

Here are a few ideas that might help you approach local businesses. First, if you’ve worked with the group before and have a feeling that they’ll need to cut back on a donation, try beating them to the punch by sharing your understanding of the economy and how it is affecting your donations as well as the business community. Suggest that, perhaps, there is a way a continued relationship could be built as a win-win partnership.

Idea 1: Suggest that some of their fixed marketing budget could be co-branded with your organization for a specific project. As partners, you could jointly host a press conference, produce lawn signs, and clearly articulate the company’s support for your charitable cause, even in a tough economy. For instance, you could agree your nonprofit would receive 10% on every “company” coupon brought in that is co-branded with your agency. The funds would go to support a specific charitable project.

Idea 2: Remind small business owners that donating services to charity groups, churches, schools and other nonprofits can increase the company’s local visibility with their customers, deepen community business ties and even create opportunities for new business. Share with business owners any stories you have that emphasize how small business and nonprofit relationships can be mutually beneficial.

Volunteering COUNTS

Well the rest of a world is in a recession, volunteering is growing. The Corporation for National Service just released a new study showing about a quarter of all Americans volunteer. The increase in volunteerism is actually quite small (about a million people) and while that seems surprising to me, my gut is that during this recession, people may not count helping their neighbor as volunteering as much as they count the hours where they volunteer directly for a nonprofit sitting on a board or writing fundraising notes!

Also of interest is that much of the growth in volunteer hours is with young adults – and that’s really good news for our future. To peruse the data go to http://www.volunteeringinamerica.gov/index.cfm

be a volunteer angel & help get someone employed

Based in Florida, we're front and center on the unemployment news, and there's no question that we all have family, friends and colleagues who are unemployed, or who face unemployment or underemployment.

So, it's great to share an idea about a nonprofit effort designed to help: Job Angels ...each job angel commits to a single goal: to help just one person find meaningful employment. Job Angels uses LinkedIn to match the profiles of job seekers with job mentors who may be able to help them find a job. Job Angels has about 15,000 volunteers scouring LinkedIn profiles of Job Angels group members who they may be able to help. If you’re looking for a job, join the Job Angels LinkedIn group or follow Job Angels on twitter.

I know we all hate when folks suggest passing on a message to 10 friends, but in this case, it may make a world of difference.

Volunteering...A Family Affair

On Take Your Sons and Daughter to work day, I just happened to be volunteering at 8:00 am, by reading at a local group of pre-school children. My 6 and 8 year old daughter and son came with me, and they really enjoyed participating.

While there may not be a lot of formal volunteer programs designed for families, idealist.org lists some great ideas.

Since our research points to a lack of family volunteer opportunities, where volunteer programs are designed for the entire family, please share any you are aware of. We’re considering designing new a new award program and maybe one should be for the best Family Volunteer opportunities?

CreativeJuices Flowing to Benefit Nonprofits

I was on a call last week with folks at the Corporation for National and Community Service. The latest news is this: they will soon be embarking on a 5 city tour to help develop new policies and procedures for the new programs they’ve been given.

What are those new programs? A new Social Innovation Fund for nonprofit groups that are “developing innovative and effective solutions”. I understand this is about finding new models and taking them to scale; funded at $50-million in 2010. A new Nonprofit Capacity Building Program for small and medium-sized nonprofits to get training and technical assistant in grant-writing and other skills; funded at $5-million for 5 years. Volunteer Generation Fund to increase opportunities for local groups to manage, recruit and support volunteers; $50 million in 2010. Campuses of Service (or Aid for Colleges) would fund up to 25 colleges or universities for community service; funded at $7 million. October 2009 anticipated date of release of the RFPs. We’ll follow this story and keep you in the know.