Company backing is vital to survival
CORPORATE giving is a vital income stream for St Ann’s Hospice and there are lots of reasons why companies should take part in helping their local hospice.
Corporate giving has huge benefits for the business by enabling St Ann’s Hospice not only to raise much-needed funds but also increases the company’s exposure to new audiences and helps them to achieve environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) or corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals.
St Ann’s Hospice need to raise over £20,000 a day just to keep their doors open, as well as also being in the middle of huge capital fundraising campaign to build a much-needed new hospice building in Heald Green. Corporate support from lots of local businesses has been instrumental in meaning the diggers will roll on site early 2024 to start construction!
Liz Greenwood, capital partnerships Fundraiser, said: “We work with companies in a variety of ways including strategic partnerships, volunteering, commercial participation, payroll giving, employee fundraising, in-kind donations and sponsorship.
“Our capital campaign has room sponsorship packages which have been very popular with the business community.
“It felt as if an angel had landed in front of me”
“Corporate giving can support business goals by directly linking to its ESG strategy, this is a great way of demonstrating social value to the public, stakeholders and employees that you are a company that cares and can be trusted. For those directly involved in fundraising, as well as upping the ‘feel-good factor’, employees can develop new skills, forge greater bonds with teammates and have fun!
“For example, our partnership with Manchester Central has helped raise our profile in the city centre as well as funds alongside supporting their desire to support a local cause and meet their sustainability targets.
“By focusing on how their business operates, we developed a bespoke fundraising plan and have weaved fundraising into their business as usual.
“This approach led to a really exciting collaboration between ourselves, Manchester Central and the Interflora World Cup on a huge flower sale event, which supported both in their sustainability goals by repurposing flowers from the event, which would otherwise have gone straight to landfill and raising funds for an important local cause at the same time.”
For a company of any size thinking of starting a partnership with a charity, it’s always recommended that the charity and business sit down and look at how they can best work together.
This could be discussing how opportunities could be given for corporate volunteering, charity events to partake in, providing guidance and support on how to achieve their own ideas for fundraising, and tailoring any ideas and plans to best suit the business. »●To find out more information about how you or your company could support St Ann’s Hospice, get in touch with the Corporate Fundraising Team on 0161 498 3631 or corporate@sah.org.uk or visit www.sah.org.uk.