Why Charity Business Events Are Important

Sometimes it’s hard to select a charity that you would like your business to fundraise for, simply because there are so many of them. However, despite the myriad of options a little bit of focus is all that’s needed and you can then plan your business’s charitable fundraising activities.

So why do so many businesses consider charity business events to be important? There are many positive reasons why they become involved and here are some of those to help you decide what would be best for your business. TalentCode notes that you do need to ensure you have specific HR policies for out of office events, however – so be sure to keep yourself compliant.

Which charity to choose?

For many business owners, the choice of charity to support comes down to something that affects them personally, or perhaps an employee has had a personal experience that a charity has helped with. Fundraising requires real commitment so it’s important that the choice not only resonates with yourself but that you can also get your employees to buy into the cause you plan to support.

You may be familiar with the major charitable organisations such as Children in Need and Comic Relief, and of the major international organisations that help to fund disaster relief around the world following earthquakes, violent storms and flooding.

You may also be familiar with medical charities, raising funds for cancer research or other serious illnesses, and if either you or an employee has had experience of a major illness in the family that could be a good route to decide on a charity to support. Your workforce needs to buy into your choice of charity, so it’s always worth canvassing opinion before you make a final decision.

Once everyone is on board, it feeds a collective determination to do something and inspires everyone.

Boosting wellbeing and morale

It’s quite likely that most, if not all your staff are or have been involved in charitable giving, but it may have been on impulse rather than having a strategy behind their donating. Raising money for a good cause in a business setting offers opportunities for staff to be creative when it comes to working on fundraising activities, and it can also be a lot of fun (think the classic sitting in a bath full of baked beans idea!).

What is important as the fundraising ideas and planning moves forward is that employees are genuinely motivated to support a charity. That helps with general team building and bonding over something that is apart from normal workplace activities. You can work with everyone to create and maintain a positive vibe that may well help improve the productivity of your main business activity.

Raising the money

With your planning complete you need to get the word out about what your business is doing and why. You have the opportunity not only to talk about the good cause you and your staff are supporting but can also raise your business profile through various arms of the media. Of course, it depends on the sort of activities you intend doing but you can normally expect your local media to support your work with pictures and stories, and if you manage to get a well-known patron on board you might be able to attract some TV coverage.

Social media is another excellent way to get your charitable message across, and it also links to raising your company’s brand and PR profile. Use as many social media outlets as you can – several of your staff may well be prolific social media users so their knowledge and experience could be a real help. You’ll need an agreed line to take so everyone is clear about what messages they are putting out.

Look towards encouraging the use of Gift Aid for donations, adding a significant amount from the government to each gift, and the National Funding Scheme has developed an online tool to help people make instant donations rather than scraping money together to put in a bucket or box.

Helping people

Giving to charity is a selfless act, as those who give know the money is going to help other people. By looking to partner with organisations that can help you make more money at events you run you are increasing the amount of support your chosen charity can receive.

It has been said that giving to charity is “good for the soul” and there’s little doubt that even small contributions make people think they are helping towards a common good. A successful campaign by a business can make a real difference to what a supported charity can do, enabling it to help many people living through very trying times.