Newsletter: 4 Key Insights From ACCP's Annual CSR Survey 📊 ; Why Your Nonprofit Needs Its Own Branded Bikini 👙; A New Service Let’s You Donate Now But Pay Later ⏰
I recently downloaded the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals' 2023 Annual CSR Insights Survey. The survey has been conducted for the past four years to understand better the trends impacting CSR and ESG professionals.
One hundred forty-nine large companies filled out the survey.
Here are four things that caught my eye and how nonprofits should respond.
✅ CSR and ESG teams are working harder than ever (Page 3). Nonprofits must do everything possible to help companies operate efficiently and effectively. The nonprofit that helps the most may get the most.
✅ Environmental sustainability, K-12 education, and food insecurity are the top priority areas (Page 8). If your nonprofit isn't in one of these areas, be prepared to make a strong case for why your cause is connected to one or more of these priorities. If your nonprofit is in one of these priority areas, be prepared to make a case for why you deserve support over a competitor.
BTW, here's an excellent example of a partnership focusing on environmental sustainability.
✅ The language used to describe social responsibility work is a jumbled mess (Page 12). When researching and speaking with companies, strive to understand their work and focus. Don't make assumptions.
✅ Support is growing for CSR and ESG (Page 20). But this isn't translating into more money for nonprofits. To make a bigger pie, nonprofits need to press the case for why corporate support is important and valuable to them AND their company partners.
This is a 30-page report and is worth a look. Download it here.
✍️ Partnership Notes
1. Luxury brands are becoming more prominent players in the sponsorship world. The article focuses on sports sponsorship, but there is always a spillover.
2. 5 ways to build authority with any prospect.
"As a sales partnership professional, you need to act as a reliable resource who can consistently and effectively educate a prospect throughout a sale. That “educational” element rests on your ability to frame yourself as a diligent, organized professional with extensive expertise."
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
1. Marketers, share this 5-minute video with your boss. You can't just crank up marketing to increase fundraising. Marketing is complicated, and it takes time. It works, but you can't just snap your fingers and make it happen. Shockahh, right?
2. Why your nonprofit needs its own branded bikini.👙 First, duh, it's summer. Second, people love merch. Third, it drives buzz on social. Fourth, it gets people thinking about you differently and memorably.
Habitat for Humanity + 👙 = Habikini
Wounded Warrior + 👙 = Warkini
National Park Foundation + 👙 = Parkini
Wicked smahht, right? Of course, it doesn't have to be a bikini. It can be any merch that gets people talking about your nonprofit.😬
3. Why organizations create thought leadership. Here's a good reason: To generate new business leads.
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause
1. Senior Corporate Business Development Consultant, Delivering Good, Remote
2. Manager of Corporate Partnerships, Trust for Public Land, Philadelphia, PA ($75k-$90k)
3. Director of Corporate And Foundation Relations, Samaritans, Boston, MA
🧠🍌 Brain Food
1. Need to deliver some bad news at work? Hire these people to do the dirty work.
2. The next Holocaust museum is being built inside one of the planet's most popular video games, Fortnite.
3. A new service that allows people to donate now...but pay later?
