Newsletter: A Great Example of a Partnership Case Study🥇; M&M Cause Marketing Campaign Attacked as ‘Too Woke’ 🫣 ; 25 Nonprofit Marketing Statistics for 2023 📊

Early last year I got an email from Tasman "Tas" Cassim, the head of corporate partnerships at Black Dog Institute (BDI) in Australia, about writing case studies for his organization.

While I've spoken before to nonprofits in Australia, I had never worked with one!

I have to admit I was a bit nervous.

😬 Would we even understand each other? With my Boston accent and their Australian slang what would a conversation be like??? I mean, my word for "awesome" is Wicked, but theirs is... Bonzers??? That's "Bonzahhs" in Boston speak! How would we even communicate with another? This could be a disastahhh!!!

😬 We spell a lot of words differently. Did you know they replace the "z" in "Organization" with a "s"? They do that with a lot of other words too! They would be basically asking me to write in a foreign language!

😬 There's a huge time zone difference. There is a 16-hour time difference between Australia and Boston. Would I need to be up at 5am - or some other ungodly hour - to do the interviewing that is so critical to my case study process? I'm not a morning person - or a late night person for that matter. I'm more of a mid-morning to mid-afternoon with an hour for lunch person. How would this all work?

Despite all these daunting challenges, it did work!

I had an incredible experience working on TEN CASE STUDIES for BDI.

Tas is an incredible person, leader, and partnership guru in his own right. Aussies are incredibly nice. And BDI is doing an incredible job improving the mental health of all Australians. Finally, BDI has some amazing partners!

Tas enjoyed the experience too.

All joking aside, and with Tas' permission, I wanted to share an example of a final version of just one of the case studies I wrote for BDI.

As I suggest to clients, BDI worked with a designer to produce an attractive PDF that the corporate partnership team can use with prospective partners.

Partnerships Case Study BDI/Safety Mate

BDI also plans to share the case studies on their web site, which I think is a BONZERS!

🙏🙏🙏 A big thank you to Tas, Georgia, and BDI's incredible partners for a wonderful experience.

➡️ Can I help your organization with case studies? Just hit reply to this email and let's talk! I speak several languages, including Boston, American, English, and now Australian!

✍️ Partnership Notes

1. California peeps: There's a new law governing commercial co-ventures .

2. Mars Wrigley has debuted a new promotional wrapper for M&Ms that features three female candy characters, and introduces a new Purple M&M along with Green and Brown.

M&M’s says that $1 from every pack sold (up to $500k) will go toward supporting women via strategic partnerships with She Is The Music and We Are Moving the Needle.

But some are attacking this cause marketing campaign for going too far and being too "woke."  Others are criticizing the campaign for not going far enough .

"The brown one is swapping stilettos for kitten heels. It is kind of questionable that they are still forcing the brown one into heels of any kind if you ask me."

What do YOU think of the campaign?

3. How many interactions does it take to close a partnership deal? According to this study, 27. While we can disagree on the total number, we can probably agree it's requiring more interactions than it did a few years ago.

Something to think about: Do you have a game plan for each interaction so you can move the conversation closer to a partnership? Remember, these are human AND digital interactions so you need a content plan as well.

🤑 Marketing Your Cause

1. 25 nonprofit marketing statistics for 2023 . Some interesting stats, like: The #1 reason Gen X (men and women born between 1965 and 1980) may not donate to an org is an outdated website.

2. How much time do people typically spend looking at an email? If these numbers don't encourage you to get to the point nothing will!

3. Nonprofits could learn a thing or two from the NFL’s Helmets Off marketing strategy. Humanizing your organization as much as possible is critical!

"He recognized that younger generations liked ‘up close and personal’. They followed celebrities and influencers just to get a glimpse into their daily lives and get to know them like they would a friend. It wasn’t necessarily the athletic connection they needed with players, but the ‘he’s just like me’ bond of a personal connection."

😎 Cool Jobs in Cause

1. Associate Vice President for Strategic Partnerships, New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY ($140k - $160k)

2. Director Corporate & Cause Partnership, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Remote

🧠🍌 Brain Food

1. Ready for a second act? Here are the happiest, least stressful, and most meaningful jobs in America. No surprise that most of these jobs are outdoors!

2. How two 16th century English monarchs gave life to the foundations of dead billionaires. Faulkner was right: 'The past is never dead. It's not even past.'