Newsletter: Start 2025 Strong with These Lead-Gen Tips 💪 ; Cause Marketing Law Resources ⚖️ ; Why a News Vacation Could Be Exactly What You Need 🏖️
As we've been doing every issue, let's recap our series on partnership lead generation for this year's final quarter.
First, I outlined nine actionable ways to attract more and better leads.
Then, I shared three compelling reasons your partnership team should publish a lead-generating newsletter.
Next, I dove into the essential sections every partnership newsletter needs for maximum impact.
Then, we used ChatGPT to craft an Ideal Partner Profile (IPP) to help you attract the right partners faster.
Next, I discussed keeping a good partner prospect warm when the connection risks going cold.
Last week, I dove into December lead generation, highlighting what to do—and what to avoid—to spread cheer without being jeered as a Grinch (and risk ruining your chances with a potential partner in the New Year!).
👉🏻 👉🏻 This week, I’m laser-focused on the first week of January—a time when most partnership teams are dawdling and shaking off a holiday hangover.
BUT NOT YOU.
The first week of January is prime time for lead generation. It’s the perfect week to harness the energy of fresh starts, goal setting, and planning for the year ahead. Let’s dive in and make it count!
✅ Audit your prospect list. Clean up CRM data, prioritize high-potential leads, and create segmented lists based on industry or likelihood to engage.
📆 Tap into decision-maker availability. The start of the year often brings a rare opportunity to connect with busy executives and decision-makers. They’re typically less tied up with daily operations in early January, making it the perfect time for high-value outreach.
Consider messaging like this:
“Happy New Year! As we kick off 2025, I’d love to schedule time to explore how we can help you tackle [specific problem your nonprofit can solve] and make this your best year yet.”
🔥 Reignite dormant leads. Prospects who went cold in December might be ready to reengage. Use the New Year to reconnect with messaging like, “We’d love to revisit our conversation to explore how we can help you achieve your 2025 goals.”
📊 Host a January trends webinar. Plan an event around setting social impact goals or sharing important cause marketing trends for the year. DON'T make this about your nonprofit. Make it about something related to your nonprofit that puts prospects' interests first.
✍️ Offer a January planning session. Frame it as a strategic planning session to help them align their 2025 goals with your solution. Position yourself as an expert and offer a free audit of their current system, program, or strategy as a value-add.
Make the first week of January your secret weapon—while others are easing into the year, you’ll be making meaningful connections, reigniting leads, and setting the foundation for a standout 2025. The time to act is now—let’s make it count! 🚀
✨ ✨ ✨
Phew! That's a wrap on my fourth-quarter series on partnership lead generation.
I hope you’ve found the strategies actionable, inspiring, and impactful.
From attracting better leads, crafting a standout newsletter, reconnecting with prospects, and leveraging the new year's unique opportunities, this series has been about building your pipeline and positioning yourself for success.
The work doesn’t stop here. The first week of January is your chance to shine while others are still easing into the year. It’s the perfect time to take decisive action, reconnect with dormant leads, and build momentum for the months ahead.
✍️ Partnership Notes
1. In May, I wrote that the #1 priority of a case study is RETENTION. I was excited to see this email from a client who leveraged a partner’s excitement - strengthened by the case study I wrote 🥰 - to lock in a follow-up meeting.
This is how it’s done, folks! And guess what? She booked the meeting!
Hi Chris!
This has been a fantastic relationship. I've enjoyed every single member of your team. It says a lot about your leadership and values. Our impact could not have happened without you. I'm excited about next year!
We're currently working on the case study design. I'll be sure to follow up with the final copy. Andrea was awesome and sent photos from this year's event, so we have fresh materials.
Please let me know what dates and times work best for a meeting. I'd love to talk about next year and how we can strategize.
Warm Regards,
Jamie
2. The most recent issue of the Engage for Good newsletter points to this page on cause marketing law resources. Bookmark! It includes something I created years ago with Karen Wu 🥰 but is still relevant: The Ten Commandments of Cause Marketing Law [Infographic].
3. A great example of an action-triggered donation program. No donation is required. It reminds me of Macy's Believe letter-writing campaign...but this one is for dogs!
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
1. True for partnership sales as well...
2. The team at Public has launched its annual holiday campaign. This year, they’re addressing society’s empathy deficit in partnership with Roots of Empathy. Watch the campaign film here!
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause
1. Corporate Partnerships Coordinator, American Farmland Trust, Remote ($60k - $65k)
2. Partnership Director, Easterseals Southern California, Irvine, CA ($127k - $159k)
3. Director, Partnership Communication. Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, Columbus, Ohio
🧠🍌 Brain Food
1. Why you need a news vacation. I'm taking one, and here's why. I've stopped watching the news. Instead, I'm spending December watching as many adaptions as possible of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol as I can. As the first ghost tells Scrooge, “Your reclamation, then. Take heed!” I’m determined to reclaim my time—and my former optimism.
2. "Philanthropic cakeism" is changing how the super-rich give. Sadly, they are taking selfish giving to a whole new level and making the "giving" piece smaller and smaller.
3. Holiday Garden update!! 🌱 A key goal of mine is to have 365 days of color and interest in the garden! That's easy in May, but what about in December...in Boston?!
Clockwise: The Christmas Lenten Rose in bloom now; one of the two holiday pots I filled with an assortment of winter greens, red berries, and lights; the purple fruit of American beautyberry; and finally, an Arctic Sun dogwood with its colorful yellow and red stems.
I'm also busy winter sowing seeds for over 90 different native plants. I will have A LOT of seedlings to plant and give away next summer! If you're local to me (I'm in Newton, Mass), I'd be happy to give you some native plants for your garden.
