There are so many facets to owning a business it’s hard to keep up with the nonstop to-do list. Often ignored is the setting of company policies, but it does make it easier to say yes or no when it comes to requests for monetary or in-kind donations to nonprofits, for example. Being proactive instead of reactive can mitigate frustrations. All business owners, whether they provide a product or service, are asked for contributions at some point during the year.
How do you respond?
Mixed media glass artist Dan Neil Barnes (www.danbarnesglassart.com) travels to art shows all over the country. “Every show I go to asks me to donate to a cause,” he said. “They’ve all got one.” A handful of other people call or email him each month, such as a woman from New York who wanted Barnes to donate a $5,000 piece of stained-glass art for a worthy cause and for the marketing exposure.
“She was trying to make it sound like if I would donate something to their organization, that I would get something out of it,” he said. “They all think it’s a promotional thing. I can’t say I’ve gotten anything back from it. Many other artists are saying the exact same thing.”
Barnes is enacting a new donation rule this year, by contributing $100 or a certain percentage off the value of a piece of art, instead of donating the full value. The problem for many artists is that collectors find out about charitable auctions and think they can find artwork at deep discounts, often turning around and reselling the items.
“Collectors are able to buy the work at half price or even less because of how (the organizations) auction it off . That lowers the value of our work,” Barnes said. “They shouldn’t be getting a deal. They should help the cause even more. Donate the full amount, then you’ll feel really good about it.”
He acknowledges that all causes are good causes. “I’ll continue to donate to people I choose to donate to,” he said. “The other charities that I don’t have any connection to will draw on people they have connections to.”
Debbie Lacy Goodman, director of operations at KBC Horse Supplies (www. kbchorsesupplies.com) says KBC advocates the preservation and growth of the horse industry.
“As part of that commitment, throughout the year KBC will support the horse industry through donations and sponsorships,” she said. “We have a form that we ask all requestors to fill out and submit. If they do not fill out the form, we do not consider their request.”
The company sets a budget each year and all charitable requests are reviewed monthly by a committee of three.
“We receive numerous requests all year, which is why I set up a committee system to respond in a fair and timely manner,” Goodman said. Each organization submitting a request for a donation or sponsorship then receives a response letter from KBC with the company’s yes or no decision.
“We have found this system to be very effective in handling the volume of requests that we receive,” Goodman said. “It also allows us to spread the “joy” throughout the year and stay within the budgeted amount.”
In the spring of 2014, Denise Walsh opened Gluten Free Miracles Bakery & Café (www.glutenfreemiracles.com). She was surprised by the number of charitable donation requests she received.
“I had no idea,” she said. “Some weeks seven to 10 people are coming in wanting a donation.” The week before Valentine’s Day she was approached by 15 different organizations. When she started the business, Walsh did include charitable contributions in the budget, setting a monetary limit for six months at a time.
“We opened the last week of March. By July I was already out,” she said. “All those schools that hit me in August, I had to say no to them. We just didn’t have it.”
Walsh has estimated that almost 95 percent of the charitable requests she has received have been in the form of people coming to her door wanting money.
“The ones wanting food are easier to do,” she said, citing a recent juvenile arthritis fundraiser as one for which she contributed products. “It’s been proven that eating a gluten-free or sugar-free diet is much better if you have arthritis,” she said. “It’s correlated with what we do. For things like that I really try to participate.”
Wash added that she, like many other business owners, would rather “donate to the ones that have to do with what we are and support those, than the ones that have nothing to do with what we are.”