How to Navigate Flower Donation Requests from Non-Profit Groups

Promote your Flower Business Through Charitable Donations without Breaking the Bank

Flower Duet offered 100% in-kind dona­tion for the Raise the Barr Event in Long Beach in Octo­ber 2024.

Every year, espe­cial­ly dur­ing Octo­ber, we are tapped to donate gala event flow­ers to all types of orga­ni­za­tions, from local ele­men­tary schools to col­lege schol­ar­ship funds. In this arti­cle, we cov­er how to nav­i­gate flower dona­tion requests, the types of dona­tions we are asked to pro­vide to non-prof­it groups and how dona­tions help us be active par­tic­i­pants in our community.

If you decide to make flower design dona­tions for an event, choose your audi­ence wise­ly. For exam­ple, if the atten­dees are all com­ing in from out of town, it might not be a good fit for your busi­ness if you don’t offer ship­ping or online prod­ucts. Also, make sure the char­i­ty is in good stand­ing by check­ing with a great resource like Char­i­ty Nav­i­ga­tor which rates non-prof­its. They give orga­ni­za­tions 4 stars if the major­i­ty funds raised go straight to the cause they are pro­mot­ing and not into the pock­ets of the organizers.

Gala Event Flower Donation Requests Fall into Four Categories

How to nav­i­gate flower dona­tions can be tricky. We cre­at­ed these cen­ter­pieces for an in-kind dona­tion for Raise the Barr and small cock­tail designs, too.

1. “In-Kind” Sponsorship Donations for All Flowers for the Event

Dona­tions deemed “In-Kind” mean you’ll receive adver­tis­ing on the pro­gram, hope­ful­ly, a thank you and men­tion at the event itself, links from the event web­site to your web­site AND social han­dles,  tick­ets to the event, etc. It will also give you eye­balls on your busi­ness from a group you may not have access to under oth­er mar­ket­ing conditions.

For the past three years, we’ve been “in-kind” spon­sors for a group who helps pro­vide col­lege schol­ar­ships for sin­gle par­ents. The char­i­ty is called Raise the Barr and was found­ed by an NFL Foot­ball play­er and his mom. We fol­low the pur­ple and sil­ver col­or theme of the logo for the com­pa­ny but the designs are what­ev­er we want to make.

Be sure to get your logo on the spon­sor board! Here we are next to UCLA and BMO!

2. 100% Sponsorship Donations for All Flowers & Designs for the Event

For 100% dona­tions to an event where you don’t get any spon­sor­ship cred­its or tick­ets, we rec­om­mend to not donate, how­ev­er, you may decide to do it any­way for the street cred­i­bil­i­ty. For exam­ple, you might be able to post about it and get real­ly good media cov­er­age on it.

This was a 100% spon­sor­ship we did for CA Grown Flow­ers. We did not receive tick­ets or spon­sor­ship in return, but could use the pho­tos for mar­ket­ing purposes.

We do offer 100% flower dona­tions for caus­es we care about like Cal­i­for­nia Grown Flow­ers. In 2017, we dsigned the flow­ers for a food and wine fes­ti­val held in Los Ange­les to pro­mote CA Grown Flow­ers, wine, lamb and pears. The prunes & flow­ers we used for the flower lamb were donat­ed by the farm­ers and we made flo­ral designs to help dec­o­rate the booth. We did the designs and the labor of trans­port­ing for free for the event. I have used those pho­tos from that event over and over. It was worth the effort.

3. Partial/Discounted Donations & Sponsorships of Flower Designs for the Event

Some­times the group does have a bud­get for flow­ers and dec­o­ra­tions so you should also ask if they have mon­ey to spend. That way, you have some of your costs cov­ered, but you’ll also get par­tial spon­sor­ship cred­it for the event. We did this recent­ly for the ele­men­tary school Olympic-themed PTA fundrais­er where my kids used to attend.

You might only be out the labor costs and some­times you can han­dle those your­self so there is not too much over­head. It is still very smart to a ask for spon­sor­ship cov­er­age at the event so the atten­dees are aware that your flower busi­ness made the donation.

Kit cre­at­ed these Olympic Games themed flow­ers for a local ele­men­tary school PTA fundrais­er. We gild­ed the three rings in the design to be gold, sil­ver and bronze. The vas­es were gold and the orga­niz­ers were thrilled with the flow­ers. These were par­tial dona­tions as we gave the school a 50% dis­count on the flowers.

We have also part­nered with oth­er florists to help bring an event togeth­er. Recent­ly, we did a Can­cer Sup­port Group fundrais­er for an event plan­ner we love to work with and donat­ed 10 of the 30 cen­ter­pieces she need­ed for the event as well as the cock­tail designs. We received par­tial spon­sor­ship cred­it and solid­i­fied our rela­tion­ship with the planner.

4. Gift Certificates for Auction Items

Auc­tion items like Gift Cer­tifi­cates can be a good option for donations.

When our busi­ness was just start­ing out and we were first asked to make these types of flower dona­tions, it was dif­fi­cult as we did not have a lot of prof­its to spare. Often we would offer some­thing small instead like a gift cer­tifi­cate to the gala auc­tion table.

Now that we are a much more robust busi­ness, we can han­dle a num­ber of dona­tions for groups that are close to our hearts and know it will make a pos­i­tive impact in our com­mu­ni­ty.

Nav­i­gat­ing dona­tion requests as a small busi­ness can be tricky. You want to be gen­er­ous and sup­port your com­mu­ni­ty, but you also need to man­age your resources. 

Here’s a break­down of how to han­dle these requests effectively.

Set Clear Guidelines and a Budget

• Deter­mine your focus: Decide which types of caus­es align with your busi­ness val­ues and tar­get audi­ence. For exam­ple, a pet store might pri­or­i­tize ani­mal shel­ters, while a book­store might sup­port lit­er­a­cy programs.
• Cre­ate a bud­get: Allo­cate a spe­cif­ic amount each year for dona­tions. This helps you stay with­in your means and avoid overspending.
• Estab­lish cri­te­ria: Devel­op clear cri­te­ria for eval­u­at­ing requests. This could include, the orga­ni­za­tion’s mis­sion and impact, the request’s align­ment with your busi­ness, the poten­tial for pos­i­tive pub­lic­i­ty or com­mu­ni­ty engagement.
• Doc­u­ment your pol­i­cy: Write down your guide­lines and make them acces­si­ble to employ­ees. This ensures con­sis­ten­cy and trans­paren­cy in your decision-making.

For four years, Kit spon­sored the flow­ers for her local Art at Your Fin­ger­tips groups and served on the board. This helped to gar­ner repeat paid flower galas from a par­ent who works for a law firm.

Implement a Formal Process

• Request writ­ten pro­pos­als: Ask orga­ni­za­tions to sub­mit for­mal writ­ten requests out­lin­ing their mis­sion, the spe­cif­ic need, and how your dona­tion will be used.
• Use an appli­ca­tion form: Con­sid­er cre­at­ing a sim­ple appli­ca­tion form on your web­site or in your store to stream­line the process. Here are some great exam­ples of request forms from Gourmet Gift Bas­kets, The Dodgers and Whole Foods.
• Set dead­lines: Estab­lish dead­lines for sub­mit­ting requests to man­age the flow and avoid feel­ing overwhelmed.

Dur­ing the Covid Pan­dem­ic, we donat­ed $1000 worth of gift cer­tifi­cates to the Beach Life Fes­ti­val that went to wor­thy recip­i­ents. It was a very reward­ing expe­ri­ence to hear from the peo­ple who received the gift bas­kets that includ­ed our ser­vices. Peo­ple real­ly need­ed a pick-me-up dur­ing that time.

Evaluate Requests Carefully

• Research the orga­ni­za­tion: Ver­i­fy the orga­ni­za­tion’s legit­i­ma­cy and finan­cial respon­si­bil­i­ty. Tools like GuideStar or Char­i­ty Nav­i­ga­tor can help.
• Con­sid­er the ben­e­fits: Think about the poten­tial ben­e­fits for your busi­ness, such as enhanced rep­u­ta­tion, cus­tomer loy­al­ty, or net­work­ing opportunities.
• Assess the impact: Eval­u­ate how your dona­tion will make a dif­fer­ence and whether it aligns with your giv­ing priorities.

Here is a close­up of a table with our flow­ers for anoth­er PTA fundrais­er. Some­times you don’t get to decide on the flow­ers or the style, but you can con­trol the exe­cu­tion. Pho­to by Tra­cy Kumono.

Communicate Clearly and Respectfully

• Respond prompt­ly: Acknowl­edge receipt of all requests, even if you can’t ful­fill them.
• Explain your deci­sion: If you decline a request, pro­vide a polite and brief expla­na­tion, ref­er­enc­ing your guide­lines or bud­get constraints.
• Express grat­i­tude: Thank orga­ni­za­tions for their work, regard­less of your decision.

Casey from Flower Duet set­ting up a flo­ral design for an Ele­men­tary School PTA fundrais­er. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

Consider Alternatives to Flower Donations

• In-kind dona­tions: Donate gift certificates
• Swag: Some­times events have swag bags, con­sid­er adding some­thing use­ful to them like flower food and a link on how to use it properly
• Free Online Class: If you already have some online class mate­ri­als, it’s easy to make them FREE to an orga­ni­za­tion to use as a fundrais­er event
• Spon­sor­ships: Spon­sor local events or teams to gain visibility.
• Vol­un­teer time: Encour­age your employ­ees to vol­un­teer for local causes.
• Part­ner­ships: Col­lab­o­rate with oth­er busi­ness­es to sup­port a cause collectively.

We had a Girl Scout Troop in Pasade­na order the gift box sets to make their own flo­ral designs for the hol­i­days. Here are sets ready to be deliv­ered. We offer dis­counts to Girl Scouts since it’s a cause close to our hearts. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

Important Considerations

• Say­ing “no” is okay: It’s impor­tant to remem­ber that you can’t sup­port every cause, and that’s per­fect­ly acceptable.
• Be con­sis­tent: Apply your guide­lines fair­ly and con­sis­tent­ly to avoid any per­cep­tion of favoritism.
• Pro­mote your giv­ing: If appro­pri­ate, share your dona­tions and com­mu­ni­ty involve­ment on your web­site and social media to show­case your values.

By part­ner­ing with oth­er ven­dors for dona­tions, you can make twice the impact. The ONEHOPE Foun­da­tion gives to orga­ni­za­tions that pro­vide greater access to water, hunger relief, health, and edu­ca­tion – while also sup­port­ing local non-prof­its across the coun­try. We teamed up with them for an indus­try event.

By imple­ment­ing these strate­gies, you can effec­tive­ly man­age dona­tion requests, sup­port your com­mu­ni­ty, and enhance your small busi­ness’s reputation.