An important fundraising tenet is that people give to people. They give to people whom they trust and respect. Fundraising is a business of relationships, building and maintaining relationships with many types of people. Raising funds from corporations and foundations is considerably different from raising money from individuals. Any money that is given to a charitable institution must be justified to the shareholders of that company.
Corporations give money to institutions to help expand markets.
Corporate visibility is an essential condition fo r giving. They derive their money from a combination of invested monies, i.e. principle, d onor contributions, and in the case of many corporate foundations, operating income from a parent company. In order to maintain their status under the U.S. Internal Revenue Act, foundations are required to distribute a certain percentage of their invested assets each year. Therefore, the foundation's purpose is to award money for projects in which they are interested. Every foundation has guid elines which must be followed carefully for funding application.