Give, Measure, and Tell Your Story

[Alicia_Schmidt]

Deliver your donations and grants strategically and turn them into a story worth telling.

📍 Where you are

Your giving infrastructure is operational. Now comes the part that makes it visible: sending your first grant, tracking what it achieves, and telling the story to your employees, leadership, and the public. This is where your profit pledge stops being a financial commitment and starts being a cultural one.

Once the money moves, two things matter: the relationship with nonprofits receiving it, and the story you tell about it. This module covers how to send donations and grants professionally, what to measure, and how to communicate your giving.

🤖 AI DRAFT PROMPT

Draft our nonprofit donation or grant letter

Generate a professional one-page grant letter to accompany a financial donation to our nonprofit partner. Have your legal team review before sending.

Copy this prompt into your preferred AI assistant (like Claude or Gemini), then fill in the [brackets]:

Write a professional nonprofit grant letter from a small business to a nonprofit organization.
Granting company: [name, address].
Recipient nonprofit: [name, address, contact name and title].
Grant amount: $[amount].
Grant purpose: [e.g., general operating support / to support their specific program].
Grant period: [e.g., January 1 – December 31, year].
Reporting requirement: [none / a brief email update at year-end / quarterly impact summary].
Payment method and expected date: [e.g., ACH transfer by end of month].
Signed by: [CEO name and title].

Tone: warm but professional. Lead with the relationship, not just the transaction.
Include a sentence connecting the grant to our impact mission: [paste mission statement].
Length: one page. Note that this is a template for legal review before sending.

General operating support vs. restricted grants: Whenever possible, give unrestricted funds. Nonprofits need flexible money far more than restricted project grants. Unless you have a specific program you want to fund, let them use it where it’s needed most.

🤖 AI DRAFT PROMPT

Write a check-in message to our nonprofit partner

After the grant lands, a short check-in keeps the relationship warm and surfaces the impact stories you’ll need for your annual report. Takes 2 minutes to fill in.

Copy this prompt into your preferred AI assistant (like Claude or Gemini), then fill in the [brackets]:

Write a short, warm check-in email from our company to our nonprofit partner.
Our company: [name].
Nonprofit: [name].
What we've supported them with so far this year: [e.g., $2,000 grant in January / 3 volunteer days / both].
The purpose of this email: [check in on how things are going / invite them to our team event — choose one or say all of the above].

Tone: genuine and brief — like it's from a real person who cares, not a corporate update.
Length: under 120 words.
End with one open question that invites them to share a story or update we could use in our own reporting.

Profit Pledge Metrics — What to Track

Metric	What It Tells You	How Often
Total $ donated YTD	Your headline number — what you report to leadership and publicly	Quarterly
Giving vs. projection	Are you on track? Did revenue changes affect giving?	Quarterly
Orgs funded	Breadth of impact — how many nonprofits received support	Annually
Average grant size	Are you making meaningful gifts or spreading too thin?	Annually
Nonprofit outcomes	What did your grants help achieve? Ask at year-end.	Annually

Telling Your Giving Story — 4 Channels

Audience	Channel	What to Share
Leadership / Board	All-hands + board deck	Orgs served, total donated — one slide
Employees	Slack + newsletter	Nonprofit stories — what changed because of the money
Public	LinkedIn + blog	Annual total + one standout nonprofit story with their permission
Recruiting	Careers page	“We give 1% of revenue to [cause].” One line. High ROI, no effort.

🤖 AI DRAFT PROMPT

Draft our annual giving impact summary

Generate a polished internal summary of your financial giving at the end of each year — ready for all-hands, board materials, or LinkedIn.

Copy this prompt into your preferred AI assistant (like Claude or Gemini), then fill in the [brackets]:

Write an annual giving impact summary for [Company Name]'s profit pledge.
Year: [year].
Total amount donated: $[amount].
Pledge model: [e.g., 1% of gross revenue].
Nonprofit partners funded: [names and brief description of each].
Key outcomes reported by our nonprofit partners: [list any impact data they shared, e.g., 'served 500 students', 'planted 2,000 trees'].
Employee awareness / involvement: [e.g., 'all employees were briefed quarterly / 80% of team participated in at least one activity'].
Goals for next year: [e.g., increase giving to 1% of revenue / add a second nonprofit partner].

Please write:
(1) A 3-paragraph internal summary for all-hands or board deck.
(2) A 150-word LinkedIn post with one specific nonprofit impact story.

Tone: warm, specific, proud without being boastful.

📣 COMMUNICATING YOUR PLEDGE

GivingTuesday (first Tuesday after Thanksgiving) is the single best moment to share your annual giving total publicly. Plan your year-end summary to be ready for that date. Pair it with your volunteering hours from Phase 2 for a combined impact story that shows the full picture of your giving.

Congratulations! You’re Ready to Go Live With Your Profit Pledge.

✅ Profit Pledge Launch Checklist
Profit Model
☐	Profit pledge model chosen with a one sentence description drafted
☐	Pledge base and percentage agreed with executive sponsor
Operationalize
☐	Pledge scope statement written
☐	3-year projection model built with finance lead
☐	Giving vehicle chosen — direct grants or Donor-Advised Fund
☐	Accounting and legal alignment confirmed
☐	Ownership assigned and quarterly giving reviews calendared
Grants & Reporting
☐	First grant letter sent to nonprofit partner
☐	Nonprofit partner check-in sent within 60 days of the grant (use the AI prompt above)
☐	5 profit pledge metrics set up and included in quarterly leadership review
☐	Annual giving summary drafted (use the AI prompt above)
☐	Giving story shared at least once internally — all-hands or Slack

Your profit pledge is operational and your giving story is being told.

Next: Considering a product or time pledge? →