There’s doom and gloom about the current economic climate in every news report at the moment. These are difficult economic times for charities and if we are to believe the experts then things could get worse.
One charity, however, has come up with an innovative idea of how to offset a downturn in its street collecting income.
Cauldwell Children, a national charity for sick children, is offering its PR services to small businesses in return for donations.
The charity’s PR team consist of two members of staff, and so far PR manager, Ben Sutcliffe, has done all of the work, which brings in around £1,000 each month. Work is limited to writing press releases and some photography, but the charity’s considering offering some of its design services too.
Sutcliffe said the idea came to him after he closed his own PR agency and began to work in his new position at the charity. He said: “Many of the commercial clients I had were disappointed when I closed my business. So I thought why not continue to work for them as an alternative stream of revenue for the charity? ”
Approaching buisnesses
The charity approached businesses, through commercial networking events. They now produce work for six businesses. Sutcliffe said: “You have to do what businesses do and think of them as businesses and not benefactors. Go to networking events and contact your suppliers to see if there’s anything you can do for each other.
“It’s a tough time for charities but it’s also a really hard time for small and medium sized enterprises, so you might be able to help each other out. This is a way for businesses to keep their PR activities going whilst giving to charity.”
Mission drift?
You may be wondering if this charity is confused by its mission, but Sutcliffe was absolutely clear on this point: “We don’t want to detract from the work we do here, and we don’t want to veer away from our objective which is to help sick children. Our work for the charity comes first, and that means sometimes I do external work outside of office hours.”
Tax issues
As Third Sector recently reported, Cauldwell Children wasn’t paying tax on these donations. They claimed that there was no need to since formal contracts did not exist for the work. They are now clarifying whether this is the case. We’ll keep you posted on the outcome.