Newsletter: Generate Leads with Thought Leadership 🤔; KFC, Pringles Lose Their 'Staches for Movember 🧔; #SavetheNight Aims to Save Last 15 Lesbian Bars in U.S. 🍻
Good news. No nonprofit is too small for a corporate partnership! Yay...right?
Now the bad news. Small nonprofits should not actively focus on corporate partnerships.
Yep, it's a waste for most small nonprofits to dedicate so much time, resources and staff chasing and cold-calling potential corporate partnerships.
Why?
Because it's hard, labor-intensive work and ultimately you probably won't raise enough to justify the expense. Fact: dead people donate twice as much money to nonprofits as companies do. And living people give the majority of the money, representing a whopping 70% of the fundraising pie. Companies have been stuck in the single digits for a generation. Womp womp.
So, if you are a small nonprofit, how should you approach corporate partnerships?
1. Pick the low-hanging fruit. If a company contacts you and wants to partner with you, explore the opportunity. If a major donor owns a chain of coffee shops, ask them to host a fundraiser for you. Stick to the companies that are easily within your reach.
2. Focus on building a strong, engaged audience for your nonprofit. Audiences send a signal to companies of what's good, popular and profitable in the world. My promise to you is this. Build an engaged audience and companies WILL FIND YOU.
Take the example of One Girl.
One Girl was a small charity with only four staff, but a loyal supporter base of young, affluent, educated people. More importantly, they had researched their audience and could describe in detail their demographics, buying behaviors and profile. This made them very attractive to an FMCG company who wanted to build a cohort of younger consumers. The result was One Girl’s first corporate partnership.
The best corporate partnerships are not so much discovered as they are detected. They are either right in front of you or headed your way.
✍️ Partnership Notes
1. A great example of B2B cause marketing. A company that sells cleaning equipment invited schools to nominate a K-12 school janitor who is making a difference. The winning custodian received $5K and the school received $10K.
2. Brands lose their 'staches for Movember.
3. Jägermeister has joined forces with the Lesbian Bar Project for a four-week fundraising campaign that aims to save the remaining 15 lesbian bars in the U.S.
4. Want to close more partnerships? Research shows that companies want to deal with industry experts. The gang at Rocket Social Impact shares five ways to use thought leadership to show your chops.
5. 5. Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds reignite their feud for charity - and they want customers at Sam's Clubs to pick sides.
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
1. Interesting story here on how a lingerie brand worked with a nonprofit to activate micro-influencers by creating a challenge. You could definitely do this!
2. Some great suggestions here on how to use an email pop-up to effectively build your list. If you haven't installed a pop-up on your website, what's the hold up?
3. Do you really need to send an apology for that email you just sent?
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause
1. Assistant Director, Corporate Engagement, Children's Hospital of Orange County, Orange, CA ($63k - $89k)
2. Associate Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations, Scleroderma Foundation, Danvers, MA ($75k - $90k)
3. Corporate Partnership Coordinator, San Francisco Education Fund, San Francisco, CA
4. Assistant Director of Corporate Relations, Boston Ballet, Boston, MA
5. Director Of Corporate Relations, Greater Chicago Food Depository, Chicago
Do you have a partnership position you are trying to fill? Hit reply and share your job listing with me! I'm happy to post it here for FREE.
🧠🍌 Brain Food
1. There are people prospering during the pandemic. Why aren't you asking them for money?
2. This city is trying to save the arts with a new art tax.
3. Everything we know about fundraising is (mostly) wrong.
4. RIP Alex Trebek. 😢 These were the causes he supported.
Have a question, comment or just want to say hi? Just hit reply or head over to Twitter.
