If you ever over hear someone from 'business' say that charities need to become more 'professional', the immediate bristling response from said charity bods is almost audible. Imagine frozen lemon slices magically appearing in c-bods' mouths. And fair enough, really - it smacks of being told you are unprofessional, not good at your job. This rarely goes down well, least of all with those who do their job because they genuinely care and not for the end of year bonus they will never get.
That said, I do see where businesses are coming from too (can't resist straddling a fence when I see one). Constant - and arguably increasing - begging bowls from innumerable worthy causes that tug at your heart strings but give you no real link to your business, service or product, employees, customers, current agenda, or ideas on possible new initiatives or collaborations could drive anyone to distraction. I know, constraints on time and resource make it tricky to tailer every bid or request, but there must be some middle ground?
I heard some great advice yesterday, however, that got me thinking. It went like this. Charities need to realise that they are (or should be) the experts in their area. Corporates will pay generously for services such as employee training and development, team building, market research, product innovation - is this not exactly what an expert can provide? Charities' IP can be just as valuable as other 'professional' service providers, and this often untapped resource is worth paying for. This spurred me to realise that corporates need to get out of the mindframe that because it is a charity you are dealing with they should do it for free out of the kindness of their hearts.
The moment was somewhat spoiled by someone piping up that they would advise all charities to stop asking for money, full stop. Hmm, yes. Well. With no money to pay employees, there would be nobody there to do the asking, so I see what you did there you cheeky monkey. I get your point, but you over-cooked it a little. Kind of like 'positive' (pah!) discrimination - please don't take a good point and ruin it for the rest of us...
