Unit 3: Operationalize your product donation program

[Alicia_Schmidt]

To operationalize your program donation program, it can be helpful to imagine how a nonprofit might move through the donation process and ask questions about what your company needs to provide in each of these stages. 

Several of our members use organizations like TechSoup to help them administer their technology donation programs. This can be useful if your company does not want to build the capacity to market or manage the program internally. Outsourcing can be an effective answer for many of these questions. 

If you choose to administer your donation program yourself, keeping your processes aligned with the way your company already works can be the most efficient way to run your program long-term.  Be sure to coordinate with relevant teams to ensure you are not impacting the reporting or processes of other teams with $0 or deeply discounted users (example: customer success analytics like usage scores or NPS; sales analytics like average contract amount; etc.).

Question	Company	Nonprofit Stakeholder
Who is eligible?	Create eligibility guidelines.	Review eligibility guidelines
How do they apply?	Create a donation application process / form.	Apply for the donation or discount
What information do you need to verify their eligibility and provide the donation?	Create process for accepting application forms and verifying the nonprofit’s eligibility	Be verified as eligible for the program
How will you deliver the product?	Create a process for provisioning the product or delivering the excess inventory or scheduling the service.	Receive the Donation or Discount
How will you answer questions or support nonprofits using your products?	Create a process for supporting questions related to the donation program.	Get Support related to the Donation
How will you scale and innovate on the program?	Create feedback loops for stakeholders in order to improve the program.	Give Feedback on the Program
How do nonprofits find out about the program?	Create a simple marketing and communications plan to promote the program. Find a marketing partner to help support any web, social or email needs.	Find out about donated products.
How will you share your story of impact?	Create a simple measurement and evaluation plan to help you quantify your social good and tell a compelling story of impact.	Report back how the product has helped their cause. Renew the donation (for subscription based products or services).

Who is eligible?

Once you’ve identified your objectives and the model for your product donation program, you’ll want to establish clear eligibility guidelines. These will be applicable whether you decide to donate, discount, or give away your product.

If the amount of product you can offer is limited or you have concerns about the impact of the donation program on the rest of your business, you may want to restrict your program to a specific segment of nonprofits by annual revenue, region, National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) codes, area of focus, etc. You can always open up your program eligibility as it evolves, but if you start with a wider reach and have to narrow your eligibility later, it can expose your company to criticism.

You may also want to consider how your eligibility criteria reflects your company’s other commitments to diversity, sustainability, ethical use, etc? Think about how your eligibility criteria aligns with your corporate values. Keep in mind that just because a nonprofit has 501c3 nonprofit tax status does not mean the values of that organization will always align with your own. And finally, while concentrating your program on a specific cause area or group of nonprofits can help narrow your focus, it might also add some complexity to your verification process.

TechSoup is a nonprofit organization that facilitates technology donations for hundreds of companies. If you need some inspiration, you can browse their product catalog to review various types of nonprofit eligibility requirements and donor partner restrictions.

Finally, we recommend working with your sales department to cross check your program guidelines. In some instances, your commercial business may already serve a select group of registered nonprofits (hospitals or higher education institutions for example). If your criteria includes all 501(c)3 organizations and pulls business from your commercial teams, it can cause friction. Sometimes, developing eligibility criteria down to the level of National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) codes is helpful to ensure that you are specific while also not overlapping with commercial business targets.

It is worth noting that some companies are able to make an entire vertical of nonprofit sales using the donation paired with a discount method—so long as it benefits your nonprofit partners, it can be a sound strategic decision and contribute to the sustainability of your program.

To outsource all or a portion of your product donation process, check out:

• TechSoup
  
• FreeFlow
• Percent
• Good360 
• WorldVision
  

Partnering with an organization like TechSoup allows companies to scale their corporate philanthropy and be part of a central resource of product tools and technology for nonprofits to access. The TechSoup team gives visibility and partnership opportunities to companies, while also producing regular reports for tax purposes as well as nonprofit validation and eligibility services. TechSoup has special pricing and benefits for Pledge 1% members.

How does an eligible organization apply for the donation program? What information do you need to verify their eligibility and deliver the donation?

Some companies choose to outsource the administration of their product donation program. In those cases, other organizations do the work of collecting data, verifying eligibility and delivering the product. Working with partners to facilitate product donations is a great option for companies that don’t want to dedicate internal staff time to managing the program.

If you are not using an outside partner to administer your program, then you will need a way to collect the information needed to verify eligibility and provision or deliver the product. A product donation application form ensures you can collect the information needed to work efficiently at scale. 

Your company will need to decide what and how much information you will NEED for eligibility verification and reporting and how much information you will WANT to help tell your story of impact. Here is some common data companies collect as part of their donation process:

Nonprofit tax status	In the US, companies ask for a copy of a nonprofits 501c(3) letter or their EIN number to prove their nonprofit status. The EIN number can be verified by Charity Navigator or other
Executive Director contact information	Many companies ask for applications to be submitted or approved by the Executive Director or another member of the nonprofit’s leadership team. For technology donations, this can help ensure the technology is part of a larger organizational strategy and is more likely to be adopted successfully.
Alignment on values	Many companies require that a nonprofit agree to their terms or service, ethical use or non-discrimination policies to ensure their products are used in ways that align with their values.
Information on how the donation will be used	Some companies want to know specifically what a nonprofit intends to do with their product to ensure their product aligns with the need or to ensure it will be used in ways that align with company goals or values. If your company will actually use this criteria to determine eligibility or to segment in other ways, then collect it. If not, try to limit your application to collecting only actionable data.
List of any resources the organization must have in place in order to appropriately utilize the donated product or service	Some software requires specific hardware and possibly specially trained staff to effectively use the donation. For consumer goods or food, you may want to ask about proper storage and handling or cultural relevance / sensitivity of your donations.
Contact information for delivery / provisioning	For technology donations, this might be an email address for the administrative or operations contact at the organization. For general goods or equipment, this could be a physical address.
Payment information	If there is an administrative fee attached to your program or if you expect the nonprofit to take on the shipping cost for physical items, you will also need a way to receive payment.

If possible, leverage other business processes or systems your company already has in place (lead gen, trials, etc.). Whatever data you collect will need to live somewhere and, ideally, be easily accessible to other teams at your company.  Finally, be sure to check in with your legal/finance departments to ensure you are collecting all the information you need to record and report on the donated items. Donated products must adhere to relevant laws and regulations, including safety standards and import/export restrictions.

As part of the application process, also be sure that you clearly state up front the specific product or services your company is donating (specific license type, season of item, etc.) and the timeline for application processing. If you will require nonprofits to report back about how your product has been used, you will also want to set that expectation up front and set up an easy process and timeline for collection of that data.

How will you deliver the product?

If we haven’t said it enough before now, you will likely need to engage other stakeholders across your company in supporting your product donation program. For product provisioning or delivery, you will want to engage with your provisioning or shipping/fulfillment departments to help determine the most efficient and effective processes for delivering on your donation. Provisioning a $0 product can sometimes challenge established workflows and require some tweaking.

For food or consumer goods, consider any special handling or storage that might be required.

An educational science RT3D experience created using Unity software.

How will you support nonprofits using your products?

While we know that ALL your software and hardware products are super easy to use, you might find that having a support mechanism specific to your “donation-only” customers can be helpful for not only supporting those customers in best leveraging your products for social good, but also in limiting the impact to other teams at your company. 

If your goals for the program include deepening employee engagement, think about starting a pro bono volunteering program where your employees can help support product donations using their volunteer time.

If your company has an online community, consider community support channels or technical documentation that can scale in cost-effective ways.

Finally, if your tech support or customer success teams are going to provide support for your donation customers, consider providing some additional training for your employees to ensure they understand the program and any special needs that nonprofit beneficiaries might have. 

How will you scale and innovate on the program?

While a nonprofit might not pay for your product, they will still essentially be customers who can turn into promoters or detractors based on their experience. As such, it is a good idea to set up some simple feedback loops to ensure beneficiaries of your program are having a good experience.

Regular feedback can also help you ensure the program is working efficiently and drive innovation that makes the program even more effective.

Some of our members have an annual renewal process that includes surveying donation program stakeholders. If you have folks at your company that focus on market research or customer success analytics, they can often be helpful in designing these types of tools.

Young child using a RT3D experience to calm anxiety in the hospital. Game created using Unity software.

How do nonprofits find out about the program?

This is really the first phase of the nonprofit experience, but probably something you will want to think about after you have defined all the other aspects of your program - how do nonprofits find out about the program? Again, finding a good partner in your marketing department will be essential to determining the best way to publicize your program. Does it live on your company website? Does it have its own web address? Is it invite only?

While you may not want to “publicize” your program, having basic information on your website about what you will or will not donate goes a long way to keeping your support email inboxes free from these types of questions from nonprofits. Nonprofits are scrappy and industrious. They will find a way to ask if the information is not easily accessible.

How will you share your story of impact?

Ok, so you successfully defined your goals, received applications, verified eligibility, and provided the donated product. Now what? Now it's time to revisit your original goals and figure out what analytics you will track and how you will share your story of impact with internal and external stakeholders. Start simple and try to define 2-3 metrics that will demonstrate success. And think about what stories might inspire your Executives, employees and customers. How will you find and create those stories? 

There is much to talk about in terms of measurement and evaluation, so we’ll dive deeper into that in our next article. 

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NEXT: Unit 4: Measure and evaluate your product donation program