Avoid Donor Fatigue with a Purpose-Driven Giving Strategy

December 13, 2024

The holiday season activates generosity in a big way. Whether moved by the spirit of charity or the necessity of use-it-or-lose-it budgeting, businesses are often highly motivated to give back to their communities at the end of the year. 

In anticipation of the Q4 surge in donation activity, charities, non-profits and other resource-strapped organizations equip their development teams with compelling campaigns and solicitation strategies designed to secure crucial contributions. As thousands of well-meaning solicitors fan out across their cities and sectors, it doesn’t take long before they’re encountering donor fatigue. 

Although motivated to find deserving homes for their charitable dollars, businesses can easily feel they are drowning in a sea of requests at this time of year. Fortunately, there is a lifeboat for surviving the deluge – a purpose-driven charitable giving plan. 

A strategic and directional approach to philanthropy, the purpose-driven charitable giving plan ensures businesses align their charitable activities with their core purpose, vision and values. The plan makes it easy to say ‘yes’ to right-fit charitable endeavors (and ‘no’ to wrong-fit ones). It also depersonalizes the decision, putting less pressure on the individual saying ‘yes’ or ‘no.’

An effective purpose-driven charitable giving plan contains five key elements:

Stakeholder Involvement: The best plans are developed collaboratively with employees, clients or customers and business partners. The buy-in that comes from taking a teamwork approach to architecting the plan will pay massive dividends in the form of fewer irrelevant requests from your closest connections—something that ordinarily could be very difficult to turn down. 

Granular Purpose: The plan outlines, as specifically as possible, the causes, issues or communities that resonate most deeply with stakeholders while also aligning with the business’s core competencies and organizational values. Bank Iowa, for instance, has identified education, economic development and health as the three pillars of our charitable giving strategy. Each was chosen based on employee feedback.  

Clear Goals: Detailing what the business hopes to achieve by supporting these communities is another key element of an effective plan. Perhaps your business wants to increase access to higher education, support efforts to eradicate food insecurity or advocate for a policy change.

Detailed Budget: By committing to a total allocation for charitable giving annually, there is no muddy water making that sea of requests even more difficult to navigate. Keep in mind the “budget” doesn’t have to be strictly financial. It can also outline how much volunteer time or how many in-kind donations your business will give. Like Bank Iowa, many businesses budget a certain number of hours of VTO (Volunteer Time Off) of paid time for an employee to volunteer at a place of their choice.

Measurable Impact: Ultimately, a business wants to realize results from its charitable giving. By building a mechanism for regular check-ins on the plan’s effectiveness, businesses ensure they are staying engaged with the right organizations and that those groups feel supported in a meaningful way. Sharing the success stories cultivated by this process is a cherry-on-top that can keep stakeholders energized around the company’s giving strategy. 

Developing such a plan is much simpler for businesses that have established purpose, vision and values statements. If you need a refresher on the benefits of articulating these core beliefs for your business, check out “Decisions Weighing You Down? Lean on Corporate Values.”

Beyond supporting your community and the causes important to your team, charitable giving can also provide numerous financial and tax benefits. Our team is available to help you learn more about these potential returns, as well as to share our own anecdotal experience with executing a purpose-driven charitable giving plan. 

Contact a Bank Iowa lender today work on your plan.