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Designate a Contact Person
Decide Who Decides
Involve Others
Establish Written Guidelines
Monitor Your Giving
Keep Records of Your Giving
Designate a Contact Person
An effective giving program has specific written internal guidelines for documentation, decision-making, and response. This
reduces time, effort and costs, while also eliminating confusion, both inside and outside the company.
The CEO often delegates the day-to-day management of the giving program to someone else, referred to here as the company's
"giving officer." The giving officer might be the CEO's executive assistant, or a member of the company's human resources or
marketing department, or some other person in the company.
The CEO will need to be accessible to the giving officer, be available as a company spokesperson, and stay involved in
monitoring program activities. Whatever role the CEO assumes, his/her commitment is absolutely vital to the program's success.
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Decide Who Decides
At some companies, the giving officer makes all the funding decisions. At others, a committee of executives or a group of
interested employees reviews requests and determines which to approve or deny.
If there is more than one business site, you might think about how to involve all facilities in the decision-making process.
You might decide to involve representatives from each of the sites on the giving committee, or give autonomy to local sites
for establishing their own giving programs and budgets.
If you are establishing a corporate foundation, it must have a board to oversee the foundation, set policy, and appoint
officers. The foundation board or committee is accountable to the CEO and/or the company's board of directors. For more
information about corporate foundations, click here.
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Involve Others
Many companies create an advisory committee that makes funding recommendations. The size of the committee will depend on your
situation-your objective is to get broad representation and experience from within the company. This participation spreads the
ownership of the giving program among your staff and encourages internal communication and commitment.
Committee responsibilities usually include:
- Attending regular meetings (monthly, quarterly, or semiannually) to review and recommend proposals;
- Identifying prospective recipients;
- Conducting site visits to prospective grantees;
- Communicating with applicants and grant recipients; and
- Providing informal advice to the CEO and giving officer.
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Establish Written Guidelines
Written guidelines define the requirements for company support and communicate the program's goals and objectives. They help
ensure that your company will receive only appropriate requests, and they enable you to decide whether or not the programs you
support are consistent with your company's stated giving goals.
Guidelines for most small or mid-sized companies usually have two sections: (1) the giving policies or criteria for selecting
programs to support, and (2) the application process. Guidelines should be brief and specific, but flexible enough to meet
emergencies or take advantage of unforeseen opportunities.
Giving Policies
These are the decisions you make about your program during the planning step: the what and who your program will support and
for what purposes. Often, the giving policy is a general statement supported by specific guidelines addressing the following
issues:
- Location. Do you require a recipient to be active in a particular geographic area-for example, near company headquarters,
where most employees live, or, if you have more than one location, in the communities you serve?
- Type of Organization. Do you fund organizations carrying out only certain types of programs or serving certain
populations, such as youth? Are there organizations your program will not fund?
- Type of Requests. Many guidelines state the type of grants made (e.g. restricted versus unrestricted awards) and also
include a list of items the company will not give money for, such as gifts to individuals, or for travel or conferences. You
may also want to make it clear that you only consider requests made in writing.
- Tax Status. Most direct giving programs and foundations require that recipients be tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) of
the U. S. Internal Revenue Code. For more information about the legal aspects of giving, see Corporate Giving and the Law:
Steering Clear of Trouble, listed in Corporate Resources.
- Resources. Detail the giving program's available resources: money, in-kind services, loaned talent, use of corporate
facilities, employees' volunteer efforts, etc. If your policy has a limit on the size of monetary awards, you may want to
include it here.
- Timeframe. Let people know when and how often you make giving decisions. Requests for in-kind services may be accepted at
any time during the year, for example, while monetary grants may be made only twice or three times. As always, this will
depend on your company's plan and resources.
Application Procedures
Your company's resources are being distributed, and you want to be sure they will be used wisely. Use your application process
to help determine a candidate's organizational soundness and fiscal responsibility as well as to identify recipients that help
you meet your objectives. As with your guidelines, keep the procedures specific, brief, and simple.
You can develop a questionnaire or an application form or ask for a brief, two-page, proposal or letter to get basic
information about the applicant. Additional information, such as financial statements, a list of board members, and proof of
tax-exempt status can be submitted as supporting documentation. See examples of
corporate giving guidelines.
Basic Application Information
Who
Legal name of the organization; address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the organization; the name of a
contact person; background and purposes of the organization.
What, How, and When
Description of the program or activity for which resources are requested. What need does it meet? Who is served/helped? What
are the qualifications of the staff? How will results be measured? What is the timeline for the program or activity?
Assistance Requested
Specific amount of money or other resources being requested.
Project Budget and/or Organization Budget
Who else is supporting the activity or organization? How much are they contributing?
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See examples of Corporate Grant Application/Inquiry Forms from local companies.
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Monitor Your Giving
Set up a system of monitoring that makes sense for your company and your program. While keeping this as simple as possible,
you want to know the impact of your support on those receiving your resources. There is a range of monitoring options,
including site visits by members of the giving committee and reports from the organizations you support. The information you
gather helps you evaluate the success of your giving program. For a sample reporting form, click here.
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Keep Records of Your Giving
Federal rules do not mandate any specific documentation of giving. Generally, the records you need to keep are those that
support the information included on the company's tax return.
With respect to grants, you need to be able to show that the funds were used for a charitable purpose. Normally, this means
keeping on file a grant folder that includes the application, the grantee's IRS tax determination letter, correspondence, a
grant agreement letter (if you used one), and any reports you required of the grantee. Keep grant files for approximately six
years. Off-the-shelf software exists to help companies monitor grants.
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Partial text reprinted with permission from the Forum of Regional
Associations of Grantmakers
©2003 Indiana Grantmakers Alliance, Inc.
32 East Washington Street, Suite 1100
Indianapolis, Indiana, 46204
Phone: (317) 630-5200 | Fax: (317) 630-5210
Email: info@indianagrantmakers.org
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