How do you handle requests to donate?

I have set charities and organizations that I donate to, and have a template response for the rest...  “Thanks for your interest in The Quintessential Cake.  We get so many requests for donations and therefore work directly with certain charities and organizations where we feel our donations would make the biggest impact. Although we hate to say "no" to any charitable fundraisers, our limited capacity requires us to make those tough decisions even though our hearts are with everyone out there working so hard to help others. Good luck with your fundraiser and I wish your organization much success!”

If it's a for profit company, like a realtor, I don't donate.  They can purchase desserts.  It it is a non profit organization for something like a fundraising event I take it case by case.  If I am able to offer donated desserts then I'll gladly do it.  But, if I can't at that time I don't worry about saying no.

Here’s a way to give back but at the same time control your donations. We developed an app called SmallGyfts that allow businesses to offer their customers a donation to their favorite cause as a reward for buying from you.  

• Use SmallGyfts to donate to your customers’ favorite nonprofits. 
• SmallGyfts are fixed charitable donations tied to the sale of your products or services.
• Customers earn SmallGyfts giftcards based on how much they buy from you. 

How this attracts customers
• Charities will tell their supporters to buy from your business to earn donations.

How this enhance your reputation
• Customers feel good about buying from you since it helps their cause.
• You get recognized for giving back to your community. 

How this helps your business
• Tie donations to sales - the more people buy the more you can make and give.
• Direct solicitors seeking donations to this program as the way you give back

Hi! This is an excellent question. We have received requests for donations several times. We have a set amount that we donate to charity causes every year. It helps the community and is free advertising for us. If it were something like an office party, however, we might simply say that our donations are reserved for charity. Hope this is helpful! 

We get a lot of the same. Sometimes it’s worth taking a shot at giving a couple things if they are going to put out your collateral, post something on social media or can connect you to someone else who orders. 

set-up a budget for what you can “give away” each month and prioritize all request by the biggest potential ROI.

I get asked for donations a lot and sometimes it can be a pain. I am very selective and mostly donate to those that are very local to my business and that I want to support as being part of the community unless I think it would be a good advertising opportunity to reach people out of my area. I also offer a match donation. Meaning they buy something and I will donate something of equal or lesser value. Setting an annual/monthly donation budget is a good idea. I have also formed a letter to hand out to people explaining my policy and deadline for requests if they ask after my budget has been met. 

I currently only donate to charitable organizations. I get about 3 requests per day and have to limit it to what I want to support- charities only. I’ve donated to events- where I could be there to represent my product/brand and have exposure to a lot of new customers. 

We get requests for this all the time! If the donation will benefit the business in some way (i.e. introduce us to a new market of people that may need and use our services) or if we feel strongly about supporting the cause we will donate a gift certificate or product to be served.  If there are too many requests that come at the same tiime we write back and say "right now we are not in a position to make a donation but please keep us in mind for future projects".  

Charity sees the need, not the cause.  

Here are some questions to consider when confronted with a request from a nonprofit organization:

• What does the organization do?  Is it legitimate?
• Does the nonprofit have a good reputation?  What are some of its accomplishments?
• Is the organization local?  What are the benefits in the local community?
• Do you know the person doing the asking?  Are they a customer?
• Is the request relevant to what your business does?

Over the years, the requests have continued to rise for us and we have had to take the stance that we donate (financially) to one cause each year and direct people to our site to register to be that entity the next year.  This makes saying no a lot easier.  

We also get requests to donate product and we direct folks to contact our stores and they are welcome to our overage product at day's end.  This helps lighten the dent to the bottom line with product we would have donated anyway to a shelter or to hotel staff in the neighborhood.  We like to keep our local hotel concierge's happy and thinking about The Holy Donut :)