How a Hunger Charity Uses a Questionnaire to Vet Business Supporters

Many companies are looking for ways to incorporate social responsibility into their businesses to demonstrate that they are good members of the community. When a business contacts your nonprofit with an offer to partner, you have to be able to evaluate whether the relationship would be a good fit.

Stop Hunger Now, an organization that provides packaged meals to undernourished communities around the world, developed this questionnaire as a way to formalize how it vets the businesses that frequently approach the charity.

“It’s really important for nonprofits to treat themselves as an equal partner at the table when you have these kinds of opportunities,” says Emily Everett, chief marketing officer at Stop Hunger Now, which gets anywhere from five to 15 partnership inquiries from businesses each month. “Be proud of what you have to offer as a nonprofit, and be willing to stick to your guns. If it’s not a good fit for your organization, you can say no.”

When an inquiry comes in, the nonprofit’s director of cause marketing sets up an informal phone conversation to get a sense of what the business is looking for and to give an overview of Stop Hunger Now.

If the company is interested in continuing the conversation, the nonprofit sends this questionnaire, which asks the business about the nature of the proposed arrangement, the company’s expectations of the charity, the duration of the partnership, the business’s minimum guaranteed contribution, and more.

Both Ms. Everett and the director of cause marketing review the questionnaires. If they want to pursue a partnership, the questionnaire goes on to the senior management team for review. Even if the arrangement looks good on paper, management must look out for such things as whether there are any conflicts between this company or its proposal and any relationships the nonprofit has already established.

The questionnaire has helped the nonprofit be more consistent in evaluating offers.

“Now we can say we asked everybody the exact same questions and we gave everybody the exact same consideration, whether we said yes or no,” says Ms. Everett.

Prospective corporate partners have reacted positively to the form, she says. “It shows how seriously we take these partnerships.”