Give as you live: the importance of Partnerships

So movember has finished and my company raised over £350, so thank you to all for supporting. I sponsored myself which may sound strange to some but I was doing it for a good cause, so I supported it. With this came a lot of people saying that they would sponsor me when they had already sponsored others doing the same thing. I said to them not to bother as the money was going to the same cause and unless they really wanted to give then they didn't need to feel obliged to give to "my page". Nowadays social media has helped increase awareness of people fundraising and sites such as justgiving allow people a platform to donate.

This blog post came about due to the rewards I was given from donating for Movember. I was treated from Byron burger to a free burger and from Gillette to a free shave. These companies are increasing their profile by supporting charities and these partnerships are important. This in itself shows the increase in people fundraising not for causes but to either look good or be social. In some instances people are using the cause to benefits themselves and do things they would not have done themselves; such as skydiving or climbing across the world. I would be interested to know how much Movember benefitted from Byron and whether the Partnership was deemed a success. Also, what does success look like.

Where am I going with this waffle? Well a study a few years ago showed that in the game The Sims those that were altruistic and gave money to philanthropic causes were the ones who were most successful. Charities and businesses are realising this too and understand the busy nature of people by organising fundraising into people's daily lives and schedules.  I think for longer/committed giving we need partnerships with companies and unfortunately to somehow benefit the donors. The problem then goes to some of the less known charities and the causes which are not so popular as they may not then get the partnerships. Companies would therefore only select the "popular causes" and this may mean certain charities miss out.

Continue to support charities and the more you can make it work for yourself, then the more likelier you are to give. I think charities should think about this and use this to create a 'feel-good' factor for those that are donating.