A company is choosing a charity partner for the coming year. Somebody on the committee has a personal connection to a particular cause and puts it forward.
She uses the contact form on the charity's website, because there is nothing else, and explains that her company is looking for a partner and would like to discuss it.
It goes into a general inbox. Somebody replies eleven days later thanking her for her interest in supporting the charity and including a link to the donation page. The company selects a different partner.
Who currently receives these
Whoever processes general enquiries, alongside donation questions, volunteering enquiries and everything else, with no way to tell them apart.
Who should receive them
Whoever handles corporate relationships, immediately, since the value and the time sensitivity are both completely different.
What the enquiry is actually worth
Frequently many times an individual gift, and occasionally a multi year relationship, handled by somebody with no visibility of that.
What the company needs to know
What partnership options exist, what the charity offers in return, what is expected of the company and who they would deal with.
What charities rarely publish
Any of it. Corporate pages describe existing partners and rarely explain how a new company would begin a conversation.
What the employee fundraising route needs
Separate from partnership, since a company organising a staff fundraiser needs materials and logistics rather than a relationship conversation.
What the payroll giving route needs
Its own explanation, since it is administratively different and companies ask about it specifically.
What the gift in kind route needs
A stated position on what can and cannot be accepted, which saves considerable time on both sides.
What the timing looks like
Companies decide on an annual cycle, frequently in a particular quarter, and a charity that responds slowly misses the window entirely.
What the ethical position should say
What the charity will and will not accept, published, which companies increasingly ask about before approaching.
What the follow up should be
Fast and from a person, since a corporate enquiry answered with a link to a donation page is an enquiry that ends there.
What the same problem looks like elsewhere
Investor and partnership enquiries into startups fail identically, as in investor and partnership enquiries reaching startup websites.
What the charity should publish
The partnership options, what each involves on both sides, indicative values and who to contact. Companies comparing charities need this, and almost no charity website provides it.
What happens to the internal champion
The person inside the company advocating for a charity is doing unpaid work on its behalf, and the material she needs to convince a committee is exactly what nobody gives her.
Separate the corporate enquiry at the front door
An assistant that recognises a company approach, explains the partnership options and what each involves, answers the payroll giving and gift in kind questions and routes it immediately to whoever handles corporate relationships prevents a year long partnership ending in a link to a donation page. The donor questions sit in donor questions that go unanswered on charity websites, the administrative ones in gift aid legacies and other donor admin questions, and a comparable routing case in ai receptionist moving companies. Start at try, see features, and the sector view sits under nonprofits.