What are Giving Rules? And why do I need them?

The Giving Rules section on your GiveRound profile is an opportunity for you to set some parameters around how you receive requests, beyond your areas of giving interest.  For example, you may want at least a month to review requests, or perhaps you want to give to things are at least three months in the future.  It is entirely up to you what you decide to make your Giving Rules.

The value to your business in setting clear Giving Rules is that you can really customize how your giving program works, making it much easier for you to manage and make decisions about what to give and to whom.  Here are some examples of what you might like to consider for Giving Rules, but you can write your own as well.

Kinds of applicants (examples):

Requests must be for charitable purposes, but can come from nonprofits, charities or businesses.

We only support requests from registered charitable organizations.

We support requests from both charities and nonprofits.

We don’t OR only support requests from youth sport organizations that don’t have charitable status.

We don’t OR warmly support recreational groups (such as beer leagues or adult sports clubs).

We don’t OR only support sponsorship requests with reciprocating benefits for our business.

Prioritizing what you give to (examples):

We prioritize requests…

For cash donations or sponsorships.

For in-kind donations or sponsorships.

From within/outside our local region.

In areas where we do business (detail communities or geography).

From current customers/patrons.

From specific demographic groups (detail).

From organizations we have/have not supported before/in the last year.

That include sponsorship opportunities where we can reach new audiences to promote our brand.

What requests should include:

An outline of sponsorship benefits.

A letter outlining what you are requesting.

No generic letters please – make a specific request.

Other potential Giving Rules:

Please [do not] contact us about your request.

Please [do not] come into our business in person to talk with us about your request.

Please [do not] follow up on your request – we will be in touch with you if we choose to support it.

These are just a few examples of Giving Rules. You may also find that if they are too restrictive, you don’t get any requests, or if they are too open that you get too many that don’t interest you, so you can also change and update your giving rules at any time. Just think about what you are trying to achieve through your giving strategy and how your giving rules can help you do that.

Giving Rules must be Inclusive

Please remember that your Giving Rules must still adhere to the laws where you live, and as GiveRound is a Canadian company, we also require Giving Rules to meet Canadian inclusion standards.  While you might be interested in supporting specific special interests, you may not explicitly exclude anyone in your Giving Rules.