Charity events are good news for businesses (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Charity events are good news for businesses

4:16pm Monday 2nd March 2009

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It’s Red Nose Day shortly; the biennial bash for baked bean bathers and other assorted jolly japers.

I’m actually rather hoping that I’ll have an ingrowing toenail to deal with as, frankly, torture by telethon is more an experience to endure than enjoy.

Still, like millions of others, I’ll be coerced into parting with some hard-earned. And that’s the bit I don’t mind – just don’t expect me to watch yet another yawnsome Vicar of Dibley one-off.

But this newspaper, like every other across the land, will dedicate serious column inches to the frivolous activities undertaken in the name of charidee.

There’s a good reason for this as stories about charity fund-raising tick all the right boxes for the media: there are always good pictures available; there’s a straightforward story that we all understand; it is ‘good news’; the readers like it.

But these don’t just apply to Comic Relief; they apply to all charitable giving. And once this is understood, it can be added to the public relations armoury.

The begging letter is a great example of this. You’ve all had them. A student, perhaps, is undertaking a worthy endeavour on behalf of an international charity and, if you don’t mind awfully, he’d like a donation from you.

We happened to be in the offices of a client when a letter like this arrived and I flung myself across the room, fingertips stretched, to catch the crumpled request before it hit the bin.

Once the bruises had been tended, I explained to the client that the opportunity we saw wasn’t just win-win, but win-win-win-win.

This is what we did on behalf of the client: we made a financial contribution to the student’s trip, thereby supporting the charity and underlining our commitment to corporate social responsibility; we gave the rucksack-wielding youth a lift to the airport in a luxury vehicle, thereby creating the picture opportunity for the media and doing him a good turn; our client was featured with the student in the media; the readers liked the story and additional funds were donated as a result of it appearing.

The student won – we helped make his trip possible; the charity won - it received cash from the client and others; the client won – they were featured in their target media; the media won – they had a good news item that ticked all the same boxes as mentioned earlier.

So if you’ll excuse me, I’ve some tins to open and a bath to fill.