July 14, 2013 | Read Time: 3 minutes
Identify the best buttons to push
Gary Blanchette, senior vice president for development at Junior Achievement, says it pays to identify what themes the corporation is pursuing. Junior Achievement emphasized its work with youths when seeking a grant from Microsoft and its financial-literacy curriculum when approaching Capital One, tapping into central themes at each company.
“Their job is to find organizations where they can give money and talent,” Mr. Blanchette says. “Our job is to see where there’s an alignment with that.”
Figure out how and where to solicit
A small charity in a town where Walmart has a store should start with the local manager—not the Walmart Foundation, says Julie Gehrki, senior director of the foundation. But larger charities seeking bigger grants should know in advance about the foundation’s four grant-making priorities—hunger relief and healthy eating, sustainability, women’s economic empowerment, and career opportunity—and how Walmart seeks to couple product donations and volunteerism along with its financial gifts.
“If you’re a national organization, focus on the priorities we have,” she says.
Make sure you can demonstrate outcomes
“Return on investment” is a measure that every company uses, and such measures are becoming increasingly common at corporate foundations. “We run the foundation like a business,” says Michele Sullivan, president of the Caterpillar Foundation. “There’s a difference between an output and an outcome. An output is how many children did you feed. But an outcome is demonstrating that because the children were fed at lunch, they did better on their grades because they weren’t hungry.”
For companies, volunteerism is serious business
Morgan Stanley has been a major supporter of Feeding America since 2010, but the charity’s mission of fighting hunger was only part of the appeal. The network of 200 food banks provides Morgan Stanley employees with on-site volunteerism opportunities throughout the country. And the employees aren’t just stocking shelves. Two years ago, Morgan Stanley provided pro bono consulting on how food banks in the network could save money by consolidating back-office functions—a recommendation that the charity is now adopting.
Joan Steinberg, who heads Morgan Stanley’s philanthropy, says such opportunities to make a difference—rather than just a profit—may help the company attract the best new college graduates, including those who are considering working for charities like Teach for America.
“We want to make sure that they understand that if they come to Morgan Stanley that we live out these values,” Ms. Steinberg says. “We don’t want unbelievably talented young people feeling that if they choose to work at a place like Morgan Stanley, that there’s going to be tension between their avocations and their vocation.”
Position your organization to move quickly
The Opportunity Finance Network developed the Create Jobs for USA Web site in 2011 as a way to engage large corporations that want to work alongside their customers to help America emerge from the recession. Individuals who donate $5 or more receive an “indivisible” American-made wristband, and their contributions support Opportunity Finance’s members—nonprofit groups that provide banking services to small businesses in low-income communities.
Opportunity Finance sealed a deal with Starbucks to sponsor the site just 10 days after the company’s founder, Howard Schultz, decided that Starbucks needed to do more to help small businesses thrive.
“You have to be ready,” says Mark Pinsky, Opportunity Finance’s president. “These are corporations, they’re not charities. Once they make up their minds to do something, they really want to do it quickly.”
