Newsletter: Key Sections Every Partnership Newsletter Needs ✅ ; CMN Releases New Research on POS Programs🔬; The ‘October Theory’ of Changing Your Life 🍁
An overwhelming 90% of subscribers who took last week’s newsletter poll said they want more information on creating a corporate partnership newsletter that attracts new leads and nurtures existing ones.
(Did you miss last week's 'Note from Joe'? I talked about the three advantages of email newsletters for partnership teams. You can read it here.)
Everyone asks what sections to include in a newsletter. I agree with Matt McGarry at The Newsletter Operator that you have a lot of good options.
While all these sections have value, here’s my take on which sections your corporate partnership newsletter absolutely needs.
🎯 Introduction. The top of the newsletter is the introduction, and, more often than not, nonprofits ruin this section with some generic language like, "We're so thrilled to share this month's newsletter!" 🤮
As you know from reading my introduction, which I refer to as my Note from Joe, I take mine very seriously! You should, too - it's the first thing your reader sees!
Your introduction should be so engaging that - more often than not - its core idea becomes the subject line of your newsletter.
Now, how do you craft an introduction that grabs attention for your partnership newsletter?
Here’s a tip: Don’t make it all about yourself. Instead, focus on something related to your partnership program that sparks interest and aligns with your work while keeping the reader’s interests front and center.
Here are some sample subject lines I would like to see in a corporate partnership newsletter.
Corporate Backing for ESG is Slipping—Why That’s Bad for Business
New Checkout Charity Research is Changing How We Run Fundraisers
Lessons From NASCAR's Sponsorship Team on Building Better Partnerships
Why Companies Shouldn’t Fundraise for Their Foundations
🗂️ Curation. Curation is the process of carefully selecting, organizing, and presenting content to meet the needs of your audience. It’s exactly what I do in this newsletter every other week—Tada! 🎉
Curation keeps your newsletter relevant, informative, and engaging. Thoughtful curation builds trust and positions you as a valuable resource. It demonstrates that you understand your audience’s needs while saving them the effort of tracking down relevant information on their own.
What I love about curation: Clicks on curated links give me valuable insights into the topics my audience cares about most. It’s not unusual for the most-clicked link from one week’s newsletter to inspire the following week’s "Note from Joe."
📊 Polls. I'll be brief since I have a full article for you below👇 in Marketing Your Cause.
The bottom line: Polls help you learn more about your audience to deliver interesting and relevant content.
I’ve been using polls to take the guesswork out of figuring out what you want next! For example, one poll I used revealed that generating new and better leads is an end-of-year priority. Another showed strong interest in creating a partnership newsletter. After sharing a newsletter post last week, I shared another poll to see if you wanted to dive deeper into the topic. The poll results are why I’m writing about newsletters again this week—the polls guide me to what matters most to you!
Stop guessing—use polls! Readers love the interactivity, and polls ensure you always deliver exactly what your audience wants—especially when crafting a great introduction.
Here’s the formula 🧪:
Polls + Curation = ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Introduction!
✍️ Partnership Notes
1. Children's Miracle Network has released a new study on point-of-sale programs. It offers fascinating insights and is a must-read.
2. How to do cause marketing with mortgage brokers. The program included a $5 donation from every loan written.
3. Six ways to modernize your sponsorship activation. Pair this with an opinion piece on why sponsorship is (mostly) a waste of money. It certainly is unless you have goals and metrics.
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
1. Surveys are essential for gaining insights into your audience, enabling you to effectively attract and engage new partners. Most people agree with me on this point, but everyone asks, "How do I get people to take my survey, Joe?" This article will help: Using psychology to get people to take your survey.
2. A suicide prevention charity used 6,929 birthday balloons to remember the young people lost to suicide. Powerful and sad. 🔒 (🔒 = This article may be behind a paywall, but I can email it to you.)
3. Dan Oshinsky at the Inbox Collective has a great article on using polls in your newsletter. Also, check out Dan's free email marketing course.
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause
1. Cause Marketing Manager, Rain Forest Alliance, Remote ($63k - $104k)
2. Director of Corporate Partnerships, Covenant House International, Remote ($83k - $108k)
3. Corporate Campaigns Officer, Action Against Hunger, NYC
🧠🍌 Brain Food
1. The 'October Theory' of changing your life. The last three months of the year are a great time to reassess and see where you are with your goals. 🎁 (🎁 = I subscribe to this publication and am 'gifting' you the article.)
2. Every fall, I dive into my Season of Horrible Reading 📚👻, enjoying nothing but horror and ghost stories. So far, I’ve finished three books, and I recommend them all—especially The Family Plot. That book scared the heck out of me!
The Family Plot: A salvage company, co-led by a badass woman named Dahlia Dutton, is hired to empty an old southern mansion before demolition. But this house holds far more than old rugs, books, and furniture. The spirits within have no intention of leaving—and they are very eager for Dahlia to stay...forever. 🫣 I could only read this book during the day.😬
The Warm Hands of Ghosts: I have an ancestral connection to this book, as it begins in Halifax, Nova Scotia, shortly after the Halifax Explosion of 1917—one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. My grandparents, newlyweds at the time, lived in Halifax and, thankfully, survived the disaster (or I wouldn't be writing to you today). Against this eerie backdrop, the protagonist, Laura Iven, a nurse treating the thousands injured in the blast, discovers her brother has gone missing while fighting in France. She's determined to find him.
While this story leans more toward haunting than overtly supernatural, the atmosphere is undeniably eerie, with the weight of loss, longing, and history permeating every chapter.
Between Two Fires: This medieval horror novel delivers a gripping battle between good and evil, filled with eerie twists and moral dilemmas. Set during the height of the Black Death in the mid-14th century, it immerses readers in a haunting world where the plague ravages France, and darkness—both literal and spiritual—lurks at every turn.
Before anyone claims we're living in the "end times," they should read this book and count their blessings—it’s a chilling reminder of just how brutal history can be.
My daughter, Cate, joined me this year in my Season of Horrible Reading 📚👻.
She's read The Silent Patient and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and recommends them both! She remarked that the latter has aged well and is very readable and relevant to our times. I read it last year and agree!
What are your favorite scary books? I need some more suggestions! I've read all the classics and need some more recommendations!
Happy Halloween to all who celebrate! 🎃
