CSR strategy
Which of your programmes suit corporate funding, how to package them as projects with a budget, plan and outcomes, and the documents a company's CSR team will ask for.
Corporate funding that renews
CSR and corporate partnerships for non-profits
Companies with a CSR budget have to spend it on projects they can explain and report on. Most non-profits approach them with a good cause and a general request. We help you approach them with a project designed for them — and then deliver and report it so that they come back.
CSR and corporate partnerships is the work of winning and keeping corporate funding for a non-profit: a CSR strategy companies can say yes to, outreach to the right corporate donors, employee giving, and reporting that leads to renewal.
What is a CSR partnership?
A CSR partnership is an arrangement in which a company funds a non-profit's programme as part of its corporate social responsibility commitments. The company provides funding, and often employee involvement; the non-profit delivers an agreed project and reports on it in a form the company can use internally and in its own disclosures.
What we do
Three parts of the work
Corporate donor outreach
Identifying companies whose priorities fit your work, preparing tailored proposals, and managing the conversations from first contact to signed agreement.
Employee giving
Payroll giving, matched donations and volunteering programmes that bring a partner's staff into the cause and turn a one-year grant into a lasting relationship.
Corporate funding
CSR funding or employee giving?
They work best together. CSR funding brings a larger amount tied to a defined project. Employee giving brings smaller, regular gifts from the company's people and makes the partnership visible inside the company — which is often what makes the CSR team want to renew.
| CSR funding | Employee giving | |
|---|---|---|
| Who gives | The company, from its CSR budget | The company's employees, sometimes matched by the company |
| Typical form | Project funding against an agreed plan | Regular payroll donations and volunteering |
| What it needs from you | Project design, budget, governance documents and reporting | Simple ways to give and regular stories from the work |
Questions
CSR and corporate partnerships: common questions
What do companies look for in a CSR partner?
A programme that fits their CSR priorities, a clear budget and plan, evidence that the organisation can deliver, sound governance and paperwork, and reporting they can use in their own disclosures. Companies fund projects they can explain internally, so a well-designed project matters as much as a good cause.
How do you find the right companies to approach?
By matching your programmes to companies whose stated CSR focus areas, locations and past funding fit what you do, rather than writing to every large company. A shorter list of well-matched companies, approached with a project designed for them, gets further than a long list of generic letters.
What is employee giving?
Employee giving lets a company's staff support a cause, often through regular payroll donations, sometimes matched by the company, alongside volunteering. It deepens a corporate partnership beyond a single grant, because people inside the company become supporters themselves.
How do we keep a CSR partner renewing?
Deliver what was promised, report on time and honestly, and make the partnership visible to the company's own people. Partners renew when the project has been easy to manage and easy to explain upwards. Reporting is usually where renewals are won or lost.
Approach companies with a project, not a request
Tell us about your programmes. We will tell you which ones a CSR team is most likely to fund.