Find someone in your nonprofit who understands the corporate donor
Many large companies are eager to make big grants to organizations with missions that overlap with theirs, enabling companies to deploy not only cash but also products and skilled volunteers. A nonprofit needs someone who understands the company’s business well enough to identify that overlap and craft a pitch around it.
“You need to have someone in-house with some business savvy,” says Bruce McNamer, chief executive of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, who formerly headed TechnoServe, a nonprofit. “The key is to have the insight to realize where the interests of business can be best leveraged.”
Try to meet more than one of the company’s philanthropic goals
Many corporate foundations have multiple grant-making priorities and often get excited about groups that can help them meet more than one goal.
Bank of America recently made a $500,000 grant to REDF to help the charity build a national network of social-enterprise organizations and demonstrate what works to end joblessness. Dannielle Campos, the company’s national philanthropy director, says the network has the potential to make progress in all three of the company’s priority areas: jobs, housing, and hunger.
“This is a really great platform,” she says.
Identify the interests of corporate employees
For many corporations, giving is not just an effort to help nonprofits—it’s also a way to attract and retain employees. “It’s a big plus for us when someone approaches us with a topic area that is of high interest to our employees,” says Garth Graham, president of the Aetna Foundation.
Forget about casting a wide net
Companies are making bigger and more-focused grants and are less likely to award small grants in response to cold proposals. “I get solicitations all the time for projects that are not in our strike zone,” says Deb Elam, president of the GE Foundation. “People are wasting their time.”
Don’t just look at the causes a company supports; also try to determine how a corporation evaluates whether its grant making is successful, says Michael Bzdak, director of corporate contributions at Johnson & Johnson. He likes to see nonprofits submit proposals that spell out not only what a group plans to do but also the steps that will lead to a positive outcome.
“‘Research’ is the piece of advice that I give everyone,” Mr. Bzdak says. “If you’ve seen one corporation, you’ve seen one corporation. We all go about this differently.”
Invest in building relationships
Not long ago, Jennifer Tescher and Janice Bowdler were both nonprofit executives working toward a better system for helping low-income people save and build wealth. Ms. Tescher still does that work as president of the Center for Financial Services Innovation. The center collaborated on projects with the National Council of La Raza, where Ms. Bowdler headed the council’s Wealth-Building Policy Project.
Then Ms. Bowdler leaped the philanthropic fence, becoming senior program director for financial capability and affordable housing at the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. One of her early calls after taking the job in 2013 went to Ms. Tescher. That initial call ultimately resulted in a $30-million grant, announced in May.
“People move from place to place,” Ms. Tescher says. “Any relationship you have may turn out to be a useful one.”
