How charity team building works, from choosing the nonprofit to the handoff

Planners often ask whether the charity has to be one of ours. It doesn't. If you name your own, it has to confirm two things before the kits are ordered: that it wants these items in this quantity, and how it will take them from your venue. A youth club with a waiting list for bikes is a good match. A pantry with no room to store bikes is a poor one, however good its work.

If you would rather we find the recipient, we bring in one of our partners near your venue: a youth club for bikes, a veterans' or elder-care organization for rollators, a school for STEM backpacks or guitars, a food bank for the Mini-Golf Build. We confirm what they need and who can come to the event before anything ships.

The causes that land best connect to the business. A food company and a food bank, or a healthcare company and rollators for patients, need no explaining to the room. Then pick that cause again next year; the research chapter below explains why repetition counts for more than size.

We do not take groups off-site to volunteer. We also do not book the venue. The program runs where your group already is (a meeting room, a ballroom, an office floor or an outdoor space), and the bikes, kits and supplies ship to that venue ahead of the event, where the venue holds them until setup.

When possible, a representative from the receiving charity joins the end of the program to thank the team and explain how the donation will be used. Sometimes the recipients come too, such as children from a youth club arriving to collect the bikes. When they are coming, we usually don't tell the participants in advance. A room that has spent ninety minutes building bikes and then sees the kids walk in is a different room from one that knew.

Some recipients can't attend. Operation Military Care packages go to deployed service members through an overseas shipping service, and some national charities route donations through a central warehouse. Those goods are packed and inspected in the room, then shipped, and the agency confirms receipt.

Who moves the donation is agreed when you book. The charity can take it at the end of the program or collect it from the venue; delivery by truck or courier may add a charge. Final headcount is due 15 days before the event, and the count can still go up after that.

Teams take photos and videos as part of the challenges in our browser-based game, and every build ends with a group photo beside the finished bikes, rollators or kits. You keep those photos and videos after the event for the company newsletter or intranet.

For proof of impact, ask the nonprofit for a written acknowledgment of what it received and, if it will share one, a short note later on how the donation was used. Employees notice: in America's Charities' Snapshot 2017 survey of 1,586 employees, nearly four in five said it was imperative or very important for nonprofits to report results and show impact.

Tell the story inside the company within the week, with the count, the agency's name and a photo of the handoff. Keep a running total and repeat it every year. Outside the company, share it only with the nonprofit's permission and, where children appear, within the agency's photo rules.

A charitable build includes the facilitator and staff, the challenge game, the kits and materials, shipping them to your venue, and coordination with the receiving charity. The bikes (each with a helmet and a lock), the rollators, the guitars, the food and the care-pack contents are all in the price. The Charity Game Show is the exception: the winning team signs a giant check to the cause, and you set the amount on that check and pay it separately.

We do not add sales tax to the invoice. A W-9 and a certificate of insurance are available on request for your procurement team. Nonprofits: ask us about pricing when you request a quote.

On tax, Best Corporate Events is a for-profit company, not a charity. We buy the goods and donate them at the event, and whether any part of what your company pays can be treated as a charitable contribution depends on your situation. We do not give tax advice. The receiving nonprofit can acknowledge in writing what it received; take that and our invoice to your tax adviser.

The table compares the programs planners ask about most, using the figures on each program's page. Every one of them is listed for 30 to 1,000+ people, because a bigger group adds teams building side by side while the agenda stays the same length. Bike Build Donation has run for 2,000 people in one room.

Book four weeks or more ahead. A charity build needs the nonprofit confirmed and the goods shipped to your venue, and large groups and November or December dates need the same lead time. Less is sometimes possible when a facilitator and the materials are available; bookings inside 7 days may carry a rush fee, which we quote up front.

Most of our charitable programs fall in January through March, around kickoffs and national meetings, and in October. For a holiday give-back, aim for early November, when the agencies are planning their own season and can still take the donation.

America's Charities surveyed 1,586 employees for its Snapshot 2017 report. More than three quarters said being able to choose the causes they support was imperative or very important, and more than 70 percent said the same of working for an employer whose mission and values match their own. For a planner, that is an argument for letting employees vote on the cause.

Project ROI, a 2015 review of the corporate responsibility research by IO Sustainability and Babson College, estimated that a strong program can raise employee engagement by up to 7.5 percent and productivity by up to 13 percent, and reduce turnover by 25 to 50 percent over time. Read those as ceilings drawn from many studies; one afternoon won't move them on its own.

The finding that matters most for planning is about consistency. The same review found that firms with low but consistent social performance have higher market values than firms with occasional spikes of high performance. That argues for a bike build every spring with the same agency over a big one every third year.