Corporate Giving: How your business can support Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home
According to data from YouGov, 56% of people are more inclined to buy products or services from a business that donates to charitable causes and 47% of people say they’d be more inclined to work for a business if it donates to charitable causes.
By supporting the work of charities, businesses often experience their own benefits.
What does it mean to partner with a charity?
Business charity partnerships will look a little different from organisation to organisation. Longer-term examples might include choosing to support a “charity of the year” through various staff fundraising activities, giving a percentage of sales to a given charity, or routinely hosting or sponsoring events in support of their cause.
These partnerships can also be a less formal relationship, where a local business will do a festive donation drive for a local charity or support with ad-hoc gifts, for example.
What’s important is that the partnership reflects the needs of both organisations and works for everyone.
Business benefits of corporate giving
You might be surprised to learn that there are significant business benefits to regular charitable giving. It can help drive brand awareness by introducing your business to a new audience, and it can increase customer loyalty by showing that the business cares about more than just profits.
Businesses that give back to their community through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives also experience greater employee loyalty and satisfaction. A study found that businesses that committed to CSR saw a 13% rise in employee productivity and 50% reduced turnover.
As well as corporate giving, there are many ways that businesses can engage in community impact and CSR, from skill-sharing, donation drives, volunteering and more, the only limit is your creativity!
How businesses can support Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home
Since opening our doors in 1883, Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home has been lucky to build close relationships with many businesses in Edinburgh and further afield.
There is really no limit to what a partnership with us could look like and we’re always interested in hearing from businesses with creative collaborative ideas.
No matter how we work with the businesses who support us, at the end of the day, all money raised goes towards caring for the dogs, cats and their people who need us.
Here are some of the ways that businesses choose to support our work:
Longer-term support:
Charity of the year
Choose us as your ‘charity of the year’, or rather, let your employees choose! A ‘charity of the year’ partnership often comprises of an employee vote to decide which charity a business will support with fundraising throughout the following year, or sometimes longer. This can look like taking part in challenge events, hosting bake sales and other fundraising days, sponsoring events, and regular giving.
Payroll giving
Payroll giving is a simple, tax-effective way to support charities. Donations are taken off your payslip from your gross salary, without paying tax on it. This means that a gift of £5 to Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home will only cost you £4, or £3 if you’re a high-rate tax payer.
To sign up, ask your employer if they support payroll giving, then complete this form and submit it to your payroll department. If your employer is not set up for payroll giving, we’d be more than happy to offer guidance and support, find more details here.
Work for good
Work for Good is a platform which facilitates cause-related marketing and makes it easy for businesses to sustainably support us through their sales.
Check out our Work for Good page to learn more.
Strategic partnerships
We’re interested in working with businesses on a long-term, strategic level. If your team have knowledge or skills that you think might benefit the Home, we’d love to hear from you. Or, if you think your products or services could enhance our work, please get in touch with us at fundraising@edch.org.uk.
One-off support:
Sponsor an event
We host a number of events and campaigns throughout the year, and we always appreciate support in the form of corporate sponsorship.
Sponsoring one of our events or projects will help your business to reach new audiences and support us to raise the vital funds needed to care for the animals who need us.
Run a donation drive
Our pet food banks are in constant need of donations of wet and dry pet food and other resources. These pet food banks form an important part of our mission to protect pets and prevent pet owners from having to face impossible decisions due to financial concerns.
Running a donation drive from your office or place of work would be a significant way to support our aims and the dogs and cats that we care for. If you’re interested in supporting us this way, please reach out to a member of the team at fundraising@edch.org.uk.
Support our work with a gift
Businesses that don’t have the capacity to give on a longer-term basis can still provide invaluable support in the form of a financial donation.
Whether you host a fundraiser or choose to give a seasonal gift, any support is always hugely appreciated and helps us to provide our animals with the love, care, training and medical attention that they need to prepare for their new homes.
Want to work with us?
Supporting Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home means supporting a charity that has been there for the local community and their pets for 140 years and now looks to the future, providing preventative community support beyond our walls.
Partnering with our cause not only helps us to provide the vital love, care, attention and training that our animals need to prepare for their new homes, but also helps us to prevent some animals from needing to come to us at all through important community support that keeps loving homes whole.
If your business is interested in supporting Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home and our mission, we’d love to hear from you. Please reach out to a member of the team at fundraising@edch.org.uk, to find out more!