We know every company’s product and offerings are different, so ultimately this will depend on your line of business. For example, if you provide a service, your professional skilled time can be considered your “product” (ex. agency consulting hours).
There are are a few primary ways to donate your product to a nonprofit organization.
1a. Straight Donation or Pro Bono Work
1b. A Discounted Product or Service
2. A New Product Designed for Nonprofit(s)
1. Donated or Discounted Products /Services
Let’s start with the first two. A straight donation or pro bono work involves giving your product or service away at no cost. A discounted product provides nonprofits with your goods or services at a lower price.
Many members combine these two offerings. For example, if you work at a law firm, you could provide the first 10 hours of service for free, then charge a discounted rate for additional hours.
2. A New Product or Service Designed for Nonprofits
Another option is to create a new product designed to help nonprofit(s). It’s worth noting that some companies are able to make an entire vertical of nonprofit sales using the donation method—as long as it’s a good deal for nonprofits, it’s okay for your company to directly benefit from those discounted product sales! For example, Salesforce’s Nonprofit Starter Pack is a separate version of their software specifically designed for and sold to nonprofits.
Finally, you could build an educational piece of content (ex. webinar, ebook) to help educate nonprofits on industry-specific knowledge. You could use professional hours to build these resources as part of a time pledge. One member even threw an internal hackathon competition to see which team could build the most helpful asset for a nonprofit. Just be sure to collaborate with a nonprofit before building anything new. You want to ensure that what you’re building is actually helpful! It would also be wise to reserve a number of employee hours to help with training and implementation so that your nonprofit can use your donation.
Pro Tips for Product Donation
The most important part of product donation is to talk with your nonprofit partner and build a program based on their needs, not just what you think might be helpful.
Here are some other tips we’ve learned from our members’ experiences:
- Start with 1-3 nonprofit partners
Rather than donate to multiple partners at once, consider working with 1-3 at the start. That way, if you decide to expand, you have a model to work from. - Consider the nonprofit’s capabilities
Many nonprofits are small and/or short-staffed. Ensure that the nonprofit has the resources in place to properly utilize your product donation. For example, if a small nonprofit had no tech expertise, building a complicated system may not be useful. Or a small food pantry may not be equipped to handle daily donations from a big restaurant. Finally, be sure to factor the hours necessary to support the nonprofit in setting up your program.
Additional Resources
- Product Donation Checklist and Suggested Timeline - This step-by-step checklist walks you through every consideration of starting a product donation program
- Product Donation Playbook - This playbook features helpful advice and case studies around product donation. (You must be a logged in Pledge 1% member to access this playbook).
Note: Some features and content are only available to Pledge 1% members. Take the pledge today!
Tell Us About Your Program
Does your company donate any product? Have any tips for a new member looking to start donating products? Chime in on the comments below!
