WELCOME
Is your charitable giving heading in the right direction?
Helping companies turn charitable giving into a strategic business asset.
About - Cathy L McCarthy Consulting
My Philosophy
My Philosophy
My Philosophy
DON'T LEAVE VALUE ON THE TABLE
Most companies treat charitable giving as a budget line item. The companies extracting real value from theirs treat it as three interlocking business levers: employee engagement and retention, leadership reputation, and marketing activation. The research on each is now clear.
Employee retention
Companies whose employees participate in corporate purpose programs — volunteering, micro-actions, workplace giving — see 52% lower turnover among newer employees compared to companies without those programs.
Benevity 2022 Talent Retention Study
Workforce attraction
75% of Gen Z and millennials say an organization's community engagement and societal impact are important factors when considering a potential employer. These two generations are projected to comprise roughly three-quarters of the workforce by 2030.
Deloitte 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey · 22,800+ respondents across 44 countries
Workplace engagement
Employees at companies with corporate volunteer programs report being five times more engaged at work than counterparts at companies without equivalent programs. The U.S. workforce baseline engagement rate sits at 33%, leaving substantial room for community-engagement programs to close the gap.
Galaxy Digital (cited in Bonterra 2025 Impact Report) · Gallup 2023 U.S. Employee Engagement Report
Leadership perception
CEO trust rose meaningfully in 2026 — one of the few leader roles to gain ground while distant institutional figures lost trust. Employers remain the most trusted institution for their own employees at 78%, twenty-five points above government. The pattern is consistent: proximate, visible leadership earns trust where distance and delegation lose it.
Edelman 2026 Trust Barometer · 26th annual global survey
Marketing return
Eighty-seven percent of consumers say they would purchase a product because a company advocated for an issue they cared about, and 89% would switch brands to one associated with a good cause, given similar price and quality. For companies competing on more than just price, charitable visibility translates into measurable customer preference.
Cone Communications 2017 CSR Study
These five numbers tell the same story from different angles: companies are spending real money on community giving, and most are leaving significant business return on the table. The work of this practice is to close that gap.
My Experience
My Philosophy
My Philosophy
KNOWING BOTH SIDES OF THE CONVERSATION
With 25 years of leadership in the nonprofit world, I have held a variety of positions and also worked on various consulting projects as a contractor.
When my children were young, I started as a volunteer chairman of several nonprofit events and sat on several nonprofit boards of directors.
I was hired as the Director of Development for the National MS Society, where my team and I grew the Breakaway to Key Largo MS150 from 1,400 cyclists raising $1.4 million to over 3,000 cyclists raising $2.35 million in 3 years. We maintained those numbers during the economic downturn from 2008 to 2010.
I was hired by our title sponsor, Zimmerman Advertising, to build their in-house nonprofit, zMotion, and be their first Executive Director. I grew their cycling club from 300 to over 1,000 members, produced Florida's first LiveStrong event, raising over $500K with a walk/run/cycling event over 2 days, produced a professional cycling race with a $100K purse, and sponsored 8 different charity cycling events, raising funds and bringing our cycling club to participate.
As the Executive Director for Susan G. Komen, I grew their 5K Race for the Cure to the 6th largest race in the US, with 21,000 registered participants. I created several new events to garner more awareness in a county we served by partnering with a large marathon/half-marathon race to put a charity 5K walk/run on their existing route. I revamped the existing grant program and committee to adhere to best practices and was chosen by the 6 Florida affiliates as the Chairman of the State Advocacy Committee.
I moved to Tennessee to be closer to my son and his family in 2021. I worked for the Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation and reimagined a 3-person, 5-day media cycling event into a community 1-day ride with more than 80 participants cycling on the Natchez Trace Parkway, raising $100K.
My last nonprofit engagement was as the General Manager of the ACS Hope Lodge Nashville, where I increased occupancy by over 20% while going through multiple renovation projects, facilitated a $40K grant from HCA, and, after several speaking engagements, garnered more than 2,100 comfort kits for those staying at the lodge while undergoing cancer treatments.
As a consultant, I was hired by the former CEO of Zimmerman Advertising to assist in a startup venture, working as the COO/CCO/secretary/treasurer, leading investor relations, marketing, website creation, finance, and event planning.
First Class Vacations hired me initially as a consultant to help build an in-house nonprofit, but after review, I found that their reasons for wanting a nonprofit arm would not have been approved. They then hired me to overhaul their vacation cruise offerings, create a CRM, and help grow their revenue. I did that by negotiating a higher commission structure with all of the cruise lines and then sourced and added a prepaid insurance policy for their booked cruises at a lower rate than guests were paying through the cruise lines. Along with some call center coaching, this increased revenue by over 22%.
My initial mindset in every project or job I take is to "swing for the fences." Common sense strategies, employee engagement, and servant leadership are strengths that I am proud of. A big-picture vision with attention to detail is what makes it all work.
I would love to see how I can relieve your business pain points and help provide more value for the charitable giving you are already doing. Or help you build a CSR strategy from scratch.
Let's start a conversation!
My Services
My Philosophy
My Services
THE SERVICE FRAMEWORK
An eight-phase progression, scoped to the engagement
Engagements can begin at any phase based on what a client already has in place. Most begin with the audit; some begin with sponsorship negotiation, a partnership refresh, or an employee engagement program launch. The phases progress logically but flex to the work.
Phase 1 — The CSR Audit
A confidential review of current giving, employee engagement, and leadership visibility, anchored by an anonymous Employee Engagement Survey covering causes, participation patterns, and perception of leadership. The audit surfaces what is working, what is quietly failing, and where existing dollars could deliver materially more impact.
Deliverable: Audit Findings Report with prioritized recommendations and red-flag watchlist.
Phase 2 — Cause Alignment
Identification of two to three primary cause areas aligned with employee values from the survey, company brand, industry positioning, and community need. The goal is causes that resonate with both the workforce and the business — not causes selected from leadership intuition alone.
Deliverable: Cause Alignment Brief with rationale and partner shortlist parameters.
Phase 3 — Nonprofit Partner Selection
Structured evaluation of nonprofit candidates against eight criteria including financial transparency, marketing infrastructure, event portfolio, leadership credibility, geographic alignment, impact measurement, and corporate-partnership readiness.
Deliverable: Nonprofit Partner Shortlist with ratings, recommendation, and introduction facilitation.
Phase 4 — Sponsorship Strategy
Selection of events and sponsorship levels matched to specific company goals: client entertainment, employee participation, executive visibility, community presence, or recruiting visibility. Sponsorship levels are recommended based on expected return rather than nonprofit menu defaults.
Deliverable: Sponsorship Plan with budget allocation, level selection, and rationale per event.
Phase 5 — Media and Marketing Integration
Mapping the marketing value already built into each sponsorship—recognition rights, storytelling opportunities, customer touchpoints, earned media access — so it actually gets used. Most companies sponsor events and leave the marketing value sitting on the table for lack of a plan to claim it.
Deliverable: Media Capture Plan and post-event content checklist for the company's marketing team.
Phase 6 — Sponsorship Negotiation
Direct negotiation of sponsorship packages to extract maximum marketing value from each dollar — added recognition, podium time, multi-event packages, newsletter inclusion, post-event press coverage, and in-kind opportunities. The same fee, working significantly harder.
Deliverable: Negotiated sponsorship agreements with documented added value.
Phase 7 — Employee Engagement Programming
Design of programs that involve employees directly: cause voting, volunteer time off, donation matching, company volunteer days, skills-based volunteering, and pre-event team training groups for charity walks, runs, and rides. Programming also creates structured moments where senior leadership shows up alongside employees — strengthening leadership perception and internal trust in ways one-way communications can't. The aim is participation, not just programs.
Deliverable: Annual Engagement Calendar with cadence, ownership, and measurement plan.
Phase 8 — Ongoing Partnership Management
Year-round relationship management for active corporate-nonprofit partnerships: monthly check-ins with nonprofit development staff, renewal negotiations, event coordination, internal communications, and quarterly Community Impact Reports for company leadership.
Deliverable: Active partnership management against the engagement calendar.
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