When is it Appropriate to Ask for a Donation?

Friday, September 25, 2009 by Mike Taylor

In this day and age, it happens to everyone.  You are asked to do something in business for free.  The question comes from a customer or complete stranger and every time it leaves us speechless.  It causes us to feel terrible that we are not willing to help a cause that seems so worthy.  At the same time, it leaves us confused as to whether we are helping any cause at all or just being used for our free service. 

As a company that works on faith based events, we get asked all the time for the donation.  I used to get locked up as I was not sure what the appropriate response was.  To donate our services might not seem like a lot to ask, but it does matter under what pretenses you are asked this.  For example, I get calls all the time from organizations that not only have I never heard of, but that we do not business with on a daily basis.  That is not to say that their cause is not worthy or doing something great in the world, but I am not sure how we fit into that with them.  We work with many organizations in a charitable fashion.  Those in which we donate our time and services are ones that are close to the heart of what matters to us a company. 

We strive to build relationships here thru the services that we provide as a Retail, Install and Live Audio company.  Thru those relationships we have come very close to some of the causes we work with and those causes have become our causes.  We are not opposed to donating our time, but we reserve that for the people and organizations that have come to trust us as their partner.