Unit 1: Define your product donation goals

[Alicia_Schmidt]

Every company has their own definition of success for their product donation program. For some, making their product donation a revenue generating arm of their business is a top priority, both as a marketing lever and also as a necessary proof point to executives that this can be a contributing business function. For others, the priority is placed largely on employee engagement and the impact your product can have on your community. And for still others, it’s some combination of both. 

Once you understand your larger priorities, you’ll want to think about your capacity and scope. Do you want to have a global reach, or stay local? Do you want to focus on a specific issue, like public health, climate change, or equity in education? Pick a place to start and work with your product, HR/People, and marketing teams to outline SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals.

Remember to gather as much feedback from key stakeholders as possible and find ways to align your impact goals with the larger business OKRs and objectives in order to get the buy-in you need from decision makers. The most sustainable impact programs align with the core business and employee interest and passion.

Use these 3 core questions to help define your goals:

1. What are we trying to accomplish? 

Internal goals can vary and you will often have more than one, but try to prioritize your most important internal objectives. That key objective will guide you if some stakeholders start asking hard questions about the benefit of your programs.

You may have others not on this list, but here are a few common examples of product donation goals from our members:

Internal Goals	External Goals
To have a self-sustaining and/or revenue generating arm of the business - a self-sustaining social enterprise	To have a sustained impact in the communities we work
To fulfill our Pledge 1% commitment	To build the capacity or effectiveness of the nonprofit sector
To create enriching employee engagement opportunities	To help create a more sustainable society by reducing waste
To assist with recruiting and retention
To gain essential marketing and PR benefits
To gain a tax savings by donating excess inventory

2. What are we offering?

After you have an idea of what you hope to accomplish, you can then determine what products or services you want to offer to help you meet those goals. Think about your company’s unique strengths.  What sets you apart from others in the industry?  Based on all the products or services you offer, what is the best offering in terms of viability and potential impact. 

As you think about what you have to offer, don’t just think about your product or services, but also consider  

the larger impact you can create through your partners, customers, network, and infrastructure. Do you have clients with incredible products to leverage as well and you can help facilitate? Can you feature certain businesses or customers as an incentive if they too commit to having a social impact?

There are a lot of creative ways to approach product donation. And we’ll walk you through some real examples in Unit 2: Choose a product donation model.

Finally, be sure to identify and listen to key stakeholders (including employees, customers, and community partners) to fully understand their expectations and preferences regarding the products or services you will offer.

Victoria Hand Project expanded its efforts in Ukraine with Autodesk Fusion. Photo credit: Autodesk.

Find Where Your Product Strengths Meet Community Needs

Now that you’ve identified your unique strengths and assets, the next step is to assess the need in the issue area or local/global community you’re hoping to impact. This is especially critical to avoid simply giving product, goods, or licenses to nonprofits and calling that alone a success; there are many factors that go into making sure your partners are set up for success, including hands-on support, product integration, pairing your donation with employee time, user feedback, and more. You are generously donating product and need to make sure the organization you support has everything they need to leverage your donation successfully.

It is important to offer, build, or develop products for nonprofits that actually work for them. They don’t need to be custom (unless you are trying to solve a specific social challenge), but they need to meet the challenges your target community or nonprofit faces. Start by conducting an assessment of the needs and priorities of the communities you aim to serve. This may involve:

• Researching demographic data, socioeconomic indicators, and existing community resources.
• Engaging directly with community members through surveys, interviews, focus groups, or community meetings to understand their challenges, priorities, and aspirations.
• Consulting with local nonprofits, community organizations, government agencies, and other stakeholders to gather insights and perspectives on community or market needs.

So where do your unique strengths overlap with the needs of your community? That’s the sweet spot for your product donation program and that is where your company should start.

Screenshot from Signpost - collaborative project between the IRC and Mercy Corps using Zendesk tech.

3. How much can we give?

Finally, when setting your goals you also want to consider your company's capacity to give, discount, and sustain a program for nonprofits. Questions to consider: 

• What can you afford to give away? Determine your product “budget.”
• Which parts of your product or service, GTM, and run-the-business operations will impact the cost of running the program? 
  
  
• If applicable, think about technical support, legal, provisioning and any sort of special packaging, and marketing and communications. For technology donations, these extra costs can feel minimal since they often don’t have “hard” costs and are part of the flow of work for your company, but you will want to fully understand the real costs of running the program so it doesn’t create obstacles down the line.
  
  
• For companies donating excess inventory to nonprofits or upcyclers, you might think about transportation, packaging, or other operational costs.
  
  

It can be tempting to try to address a wide net of needs in your community, but by focusing on your existing expertise and resources, you will be able to achieve the most impact. Remember—it’s OK to start small. Your product pledge program can grow and adapt as you do. 

Now try putting together your answers to the three questions in a document. This will be the blueprint for your program.

What are we trying to accomplish?	What are we offering?	How much can we give?
Help the nonprofit sector work more effectively	10 free licenses of our Starter Plan	Limited to 501(c)3 orgs with revenue under $10M in AMER
Help the nonprofit sector work more effectively	Partner programs that provide benefits to partners who provide donated products / services to nonprofits	Unlimited
Be a self-sustaining social enterprise	Additional discounts on all other products	Unlimited
Help the nonprofit sector work more effectively	Accelerators where we work with nonprofits to build apps to support sustainability initiatives	10 employees; 200 hours a year
Engage employees in enriching volunteer experiences	Pro-bono technical support programs or development services	1000 hours a year

From here, you should also be able to write a simple 2-3 sentence description of your program that you can use as you socialize the idea with other stakeholders. Here are a few examples from our members:

	Get design software for your nonprofit or charity through Autodesk for Nonprofits at TechSoup. Through its Technology Impact Program, Autodesk donates software to nonprofits and social impact startups that use design for environmental or social good. Eligible organizations receive Autodesk software solutions that enable 3D design, engineering, visualization, and simulation to deliver greater impact.
	Designing real change. With over 500,000 nonprofits in our community, we at Canva want to continue to empower nonprofits to achieve their goals with free access to Canva's premium features.
	Notion for nonprofits. We support 501(c)3 organizations working to solve the world’s toughest problems with 50% off our Plus Plan.
	The Power of Us Program provides discounted Salesforce technology to education institutions and nonprofit organizations looking to get started with the world’s #1 CRM platform. Once your application for the program is approved, you will be able to log in to the Power of Us Portal to view your subscriptions and offers. Your organization must be in compliance with Salesforce’s Acceptable Use Policy.

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Next: Unit 2: Choose your product donation model