Your business coffee machine can be an untapped charitable resource to help your business in its fundraising and we have some tips to help you get started. Just remember through the process that fun and creativity are key to raising money.
Good For Your Business
Supporting charities is great for employee morale and makes smart business sense. Fundraising can improve your business by helping you to attract better talent and your business visibly improving your local community can strengthen bonds between people including customers and potential customers.
Which Cause To Choose?
The very first thing you'll need to do is choose a charity. Look for charities who's endeavours align with you or your business's own.
A good example might be a construction company who raises funds or volunteers for Habitat for Humanity or a food company that sponsors their local Food Bank.
Talk to your employees about issues and the various charities that are important to them or choose a cause that's has effected them personally in some way. Maybe they've had a close relative who has experienced the trauma of cancer or personally volunteer themselves with a shelter.
Why choose just one charity? You could choose a different charity each month of the year to keep things interesting and employees motivated.
Its always good practice to make sure that a charity is registered before you donate. You can usually find this out easily online. This website is for UK Registered Charities and this site is for Charities registered in the Republic of Ireland. Making sure a charity is registered is a good way to ensure funds are used correctly and to avoid any future embarrassment.
Once you have chosen a charity contact them and inform them of your intentions to use your business coffee machine to raise money for them. Most charities are able to supply you with a fundraising kit that may contain source materials, posters, and charity boxes etc to get you started and can give you great advice on talking points and getting involved further.
Setting up your business coffee machine to make it fundraising friendly is easy and you have different options available. Putting an honesty jar next to the machine and asking for a small donation per cup is very simple and if you have contacted your chosen charity the chances are they have sent you a small box or canister to collect funds in their fundraising kit.
Our business coffee machines have pay pods or card available so you are able to set a purchase price for the drink and then donate the proceeds. Our pay pods and card readers are easy and intuitive to you to use so its a hassle free option for you and your staff with the added benefit of not having to worry about whether or not people are using an honesty box.
Put up posters for the charity in the vicinity of the machine and supply brochures nearby so people are aware that they are able to donate and don't forget that you can also donate the earnings from your office vending machine as well. You are likely to get more traffic with a bit of marketing.
Coffee Mornings
Don't forget how great and entertaining coffee mornings can be! Its a fun way for your staff to relax and socialise and show off their impressive baking skills.
Invite people from neighbouring offices or businesses to join in which is great for local networking as well as charitable giving and don't forget to post the event on social media to encourage extra donations.
One of the most important things to remember is that the work these charities do is extremely important and serious business but raising money for them doesn't have to be. The more creativity and fun it is the
Before you know it chartable giving will become a regular part of your workplace culture and something that your staff and customers enjoy and look forward to. After all who doesn't want to feel apart of something that is worthwhile and bigger than themselves?
You and your business are sure to reap the amazing benefits as you see your staff strengthening their bonds not only with each other but with their community. Its a win win for everyone so what's stopping you?
Looking for a great business coffee machine to help get you started. Give us a shout!