To feel awful for having to decline this in work?

[Starsbrightshine]

I work as a PR manager for a major UK company. I received an email from a fellow PR manager working for a major children's hospital. They we're looking to work with us on a potential PR activation with the aim of driving donations for the hospital to make up for the loss of donations during lockdown due to having to cancel fundraising activities and PR activations. I unfortunately had to politely decline as we already have a charity partner and our contract with them means we can't run PR activations with other charities. Felt awful though knowing I had potentially just caused a children's hospital to not get the donations they need to look after the children.

They’ll contact other people surely?

Have you a presence on linkedin? Speak to the person and suggest you post on linked with their details and advertise for some help? I’ve seen signal boosting like that work really well on LinkedIn.

@paintedfences

I've got her phone number from her signature on the email so I am going to speak to her and see what I can do to help.

@Nightmanagerfan

I'm going to contact them again and see what I can do to help.

Won't they just get someone else to do it?

@Palavah

They will struggle as most companies in our industry already have charity partners.

I did think about saying we may be able to do a charitable donation to them instead of running the proposed PR activation. I just don't know if I would get a donation approved by our internal skateholders.

I’m sure you are not the only PR manager that they contacted , so I
Wouldn’t worry.

Would offering to have a chat to perhaps consider offering expertise or advice?
Mentoring etc?

@Whatthebloodyell

I might see if I can get a charitable donation approved by our internal shareholders, I won't know for sure unless I try.

*skateholders

@thesandwich

I am going to ring them back tomorrow to see how I can help them and also to discuss the idea of trying to get a charitable donation approved by our internal stakeholders, won't be easy to get approved but I'm determined to try.

I think I’d try and get the donation before you tell the woman. She could be banking on receiving it and then you can’t get them to agree to make a donation.

Your offers will be much appreciated, I'm sure! Some Linkedin networking would be fantastic.
I imagine they'd also be grateful for a heads up for when your current charity partnership comes up for renewal, or a coffee to chat about what might make their application stand out if they were to apply.

skateholders 😂 and then skateholders again.😂

Your autocorrect is behaving badly.

@NotEverythingIsBlackandWhite

It was supposed to say skateholders.

[quote Starsbrightshine]@NotEverythingIsBlackandWhite

It was supposed to say skateholders.[/quote]
are you sure you don't mean stakeholders?

@Gazelda

That's what I'm going to do.

@Gazelda

Sorry yes

@LtJudyHopps

I will try and get the donation first.

I know a lot of hospitals do fundraising for extras, but really most of that stuff should be funded by the NHS, which means the government should be giving the NHS more money. It shouldn't need charities to beg for money for children's health.

You won't be the only one on their list. I wouldn't lose sleep over it. Smaller charities will be having a much harder time.

You can’t take personal blame for this . I’m sure you are not the only person in the world who can help.

OP, I work in charity fundraising. It's really nice that you're going above and beyond to try to help, but just to reassure you that most people working in the sector (and hospitals seeking charitable donations would be included in that) would be acutely aware that most companies have exclusive charity partnerships. Of course that doesn't stop us contacting them, after all those partnerships do change, sometimes frequently, and companies often help in other hidden ways.

However, it does mean that when we're turned down it's not a game changer by any stretch (at least it shouldn't be if a charity is being properly run, as they should be seeking donations from a variety of sources, not pinning all their hopes on one thing). By all means do try to help, but please don't feel guilty, you are in no way responsible!

Oh and agree with @katy1213 smaller charities are probably struggling much more than a childrens hospital will be at the moment. Some charities dealing with certain issues always do well in fundraising terms compared to small charities dealing with niche issues. They really really need support right now and are often less savvy in getting it (not their fault as they're usually relying on volunteers and are less well connected).