Giving Officer Quick Tips - Page 9
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Focus Areas- When selecting a focus area, survey a variety of stakeholders (employees, customers) to determine what issues are most important to them and what issues they would like to see your company support. Consider other topics, such as does it match company goals, align with your brand, can be communicated easily, is a cluttered issue, can make an impact, and can be executed.
- Try to not be reactive in selecting a focus area (responding to negative publicity or sudden consumer interest in “hot trend”). Be strategic and careful, because your focus area choice is the bedrock of your philanthropic commitment.
- Consider exploring niches within a crowded area, or engaging causes where no one is currently operating.
- Have a clearly defined focus to assist headquarters and other business units in gracefully turning down funding requests.
- Ensure your focus area ties into the company’s culture and business mission.
- Develop focus areas that allow you to tap all of your resources — employee skills and interests, business relationships, technologies, systems and processes, etc.
- Be aware of your limitations — “owning” any category or at least acquiring a presence requires a significant financial and time commitment, which some departments do not have.
Benchmarking
Measure up.CECP’s exclusive benchmarking tool, the Corporate Giving Standard, gives companies access to over $60 billion in comparative giving data and provides the foundation for our annual study of philanthropy trends.
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