New initiative recruiting small businesses to help raise funds for small charities in need
- - - STORY CONTINUES BELOW IMAGE - - -
The competition for the donor dollar is fierce, and it's usually the smaller, lesser-known charities that suffer, even though they are the ones that have the biggest impact in our local communities. Business reporter Shelley Swirski takes a look at a new initiative to help match up small charities in need with small businesses that can help them.
Friday night at Eau Claire Market is a special night for Delaney Rivard and her friends. It's teens' night out - an evening for fun, games and friendship.
"It's my favourite place to play lots of games and win cool prizes and have fun," said Rivard. She and her pals belong to the Between Friends Club, a group for youths with disabilities. The organization relies heavily on donor dollars for its survival, not easy when you're competing with more popular and well-known charities.
"People on their board of directors are high profile people. They're connected people in the community. We're not as fortunate. I have a great board of directors, but they will admit it too, they're not really connected," said Suzanne Jackett, the executive director of the Between Friends Club.
Making personal connections with businesses has become almost impossible. Many companies won't accept any form of contact unless it's directed through their websites. Generic questionnaires ask about the charities - such as their targets and their goals - before the companies will even consider any direct contact.
Good For Business is launching this week, attracting small to medium-sized business owners in Calgary who want to help some of the small to medium-sized charities. They believe there are business people in Calgary who want to extend themselves into the community, but don't know where to start.
"Business has tremendous resources... ingenuity. If we could somehow get on board a large number of particularly small business people, I think that we could do incredible things in this city. It could be a model for what other cities look to," said Sean Young of Borrow Me Inc. "It's almost like the door is already partially open for us, and you just need to push it a bit rather than trying to unlock it first."
The Between Friends Club is only one of the little-known local charities that Good for Business will target. For these groups, the new initiative may be one of their few hopes for funding and survival. Something that's very important to Delaney Rivard.
"I would be all alone. Kind of upset that I would not be part of the group anymore," she said.
