Newsletter: The Mismatched Expectations Holding Back Partnerships 🧦; How to Do Cause Marketing with a Knife Maker 🔪 ; Companies are Replacing Their Lawns with Native Plants 🌱👏
My friends at Remarkable Partnerships (RP) in the U.K. recently published a great post on the mismatched expectations hurting partnerships. You should read the article and check out the report they released.
Here's the mismatch in a nutshell. 🥜
Nonprofits want to raise money, but companies want to meet their ESG objectives, grow their brand profile, and engage employees.
Nonprofits and companies aren't exactly on the same page.
What's a nonprofit to do? A few suggestions.
🧐 Ask your prospect what they want to accomplish. Most nonprofits are obsessed with themselves and their mission. There is a place for talking about yourself, but when it comes to corporate partnerships, you have to focus on your partner's objectives - not just your own.
🔢 Don't focus on just one thing. There are at least eight different ways to work with a company. Don't settle just for one! You'll be helping yourself AND your partner.
📣 Report the impact for BOTH partners. RP hits the nail on the head with this point.
"The problem with impact reporting is that charities often only focus on the impact on their service users. However, you should also report on how the partnership has delivered the companies’ business objectives."
RP is making an excellent case for case studies! Case studies are critical for recruiting new partners - that's why most nonprofits use them. But they also reinforce the value of the partnership to the existing partner.
As RP says...
"If you include this impact, you provide evidence that your partnership is indispensable, and you make a compelling case for continuing and growing your relationship."
My strategy when I write case studies is to focus on the benefits to the company, not the nonprofit.
Trust me. The prospect knows YOU benefited from a partnership. What they want to know is how they will benefit from it. With a case study, an existing partner gets to share its success story with a prospective partner in its own words. That's powerful.
✍️ Partnership Notes
1. How to do cause marketing with a knife maker.🔪 The goal was $50k. They raised $300k!
2. Fact: Partnership decisions are made by a committee and not by one person.
3. Do companies ever ask you what to do if they should ever get blowback for supporting a cause or an issue? First, show them this research. Second, share this quote:
"Be sure to put your feet in the right place, then stand firm." - Abraham Lincoln
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
1. Is your website hurting your nonprofit's credibility? Here's how to fix that.
2. What marketing tactics are B2B firms focusing on in the next year? I was surprised by what's #1. What's your strategy in this area? Corporate summit? Trade shows?
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause
1. Senior Corporate Partnership Officer, American Red Cross, Dallas, TX
🧠🍌 Brain Food
1. Like me, companies are replacing their lawns with native plants! 🌱 👏👏
2. How to read less news but be more informed. I like #3: Find the 'tall poppies.'
3. My weight is equivalent to 769 bananas or eight full-grown corgis. But my weight is only 0.2% of an airplane, so I feel light. 😬 Check out Weight to Objects.
