Just recently we became witnesses to a very generous act – one of Australia’s largest companies, Westfarmers, donated $5 million for Cancer Research. The money will be used to establish a Professorial Chair in Women’s Cancers at the Perkins Centre for Women’s Cancer Research, part of the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. The Chair will be the first of its kind for West Australia and will give new hope to hundreds of thousands of women in Australia and millions around the world, as 1 in 8 women in the country will be, according to the scientists at the Institute, diagnosed with cancer.

5 million dollars is a really amazing gift for a great cause, but it also open space for a very important question: What difference could you make if you could encourage corporations to donate? If you are responsible for the finances of a not-for-profit organisation, you probably know only too well how hard it is to convince even small companies and organisations to donate to your cause. Usually, it is even harder to persuade a large corporation to become your donor and cases like the one above are not common. However, they are really important and absolutely possible if you put enough effort and hard work into your fundraising strategy.

Imagine what you can do with $5 million – the impact may be life-saving, world-changing, miraculous! Open a new document and on one side write all the expenses of your NFP, all the events you want to organise, everything you need money for. On the other side write $5,000,000. Will it be enough? Even if it is not, it provides a lot of opportunities to raise more, to multiply it and invest it in a way that will stabilize your budget and allow you to carry out all your goals on time.

Keep in mind, however, that corporations could also benefit from donating and that is something you can use to convince them. Ask yourself why would any corporation donate to a good cause? There are two main reasons: a) because the leader(s) of the corporation want to contribute to the cause; and b) because of the marketing impact of donations – the public will start seeing the corporation as a good corporate citizen. Usually, the two reasons go hand in hand and that’s how you need to present them to the corporation you are trying to work with.

All in all, there is no doubt that corporate donations are important. However, it is important to know how exactly a NFP can find them. We will soon make a new post dealing with the topic of corporate sponsors and how to build relationships with them, so make sure you visit our blog regularly. Meanwhile, it’s worth carrying out a bit of research – make a list of the major corporations in your area and see if they have funding and sponsorship information on their website. If they have donated in the past – it is likely that they can be convinced to donate again!