My question for you is kind of simple but not a question that many people would ask or even care about. However, I am an assistant coach of a baseball team at one of the local christian high schools. The school does not have a baseball field nor does it have very much money to spare for one. How do I go about getting donations from businesses to be able to build a baseball field for this school, and how and what would you recommend saying or asking them?

I would like to answer this question from the business perspective … ie what is a businesses view on charitable donations.

Firstly, i would like to say that our business has a strong community spirit and believes that we need to give back to those that are much more needy than us.  We have set up a foundation internally and we use that to channel some funds to the causes that we believe are best aligned with what we are about as a business.  For us, we are strong supporters of bridging the the digital divide – ie helping those without access (especially kids) to get access to the intenret.  The reason is simple – without knowledge, a kid will struggle as it moves into adult life.

So, how do we approach charitable donations.  Firstly if it is within the foundation, we approach those organisations that we believe best meet our overall foundation goal.

Secondly, if someone approaches us, we firstly measure their requirements against the objectives of the foundation – if there is alignment then we chat and see what they can do for us as well as what they really want from us.

Now if you are like the author of the question above – you have to find organisations in your area that are aligned with what you are trying to acheive and for whom you will have a clear value proposition – perhaps marketing / branding that can help promote their brand in the area.

I would also start door knocking … at the end of the day you have to do some hard work to get the $ through the door.  When you do find a great orgnisation to work with, look after them and they will look after you.