Newsletter: How to Monetize Your Content with Corporate Partnerships 🤝 ; Cause Marketing Can Solve Sports’ Gen Z Problem 🙅🏻♂️ ⚾️ ; Nonprofits That Smell Raise More Money👃🏽
Build an audience. Engage with that audience. Monetize that audience (with corporate and other forms of support).
For those of you who have been readers for a while, I can see your eye balls rolling.🙄I know. I say this all the time! It's kind of become my mantra. For newbies, welcome to what I call audience-centric fundraising.
Now, when I say build an audience, many of you will think of events, which are generally excellent for building an audience. But, alas, not during a global pandemic.
Plan B is to start building an audience TODAY with a keystone content asset. This can be a newsletter, a blog, a Youtube channel, a podcast, an Instagram handle, etc. One example I've talked about before is from the National Audubon Society.
Here are the steps Audubon took to create their keystone content asset:
1. They picked an audience. Audubon decided to zero in on gardeners who wanted to attract birds to their yards with native plants.🦩🌺
2. They picked one format. Audubon chose to cultivate gardeners with a database. Remember, "content" can be just about anything (e.g. quizzes, webinars).
3. They grew the audience. Audubon did this in a bunch of different ways, including with blog posts and targeted online ads.
4. They focused on serving not selling. Audubon didn't try to monetize the database from day-one. Their only goal in the beginning was to build an engaged audience that knows, likes and trusts them.
When I last checked on the database earlier this year, Audubon was focused on steps #3 and #4. I was waiting for when Audubon would have a large enough audience that they would attract/solicit corporate support.
My wait ended last month.
🤯The lesson? Build an audience with a keystone content asset. Engage with that audience (serve, don't sell). When the time is right, monetize that audience (with corporate and other forms of support).
Hit reply and let me know what's stopping YOU from building your keystone content asset.
✍️ Partnership Notes
1. This was a great promotion.👆The story was fun, they explained how the👖would be used and there's an activation for consumers that will raise Boys & Girls Clubs of America some dough through the end of the year!
2. How companies are stepping up to help at-risk seniors during the pandemic.
3. I've often said that cause is a continuum. This article maps out the stops from "profit driver" to "purpose effect" so you can show companies where they are on the spectrum. (Interestingly, when I asked the "Mother of Purpose" about the spectrum, she saw it differently.) Couple the above article with this one from Ben & Jerry's on not expecting instant gratification for purpose work.
4. Your local sports teams have a Gen Z problem. Your nonprofit is part of the solution.
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
1. Really smart use of influencers. Dairy Management, an American trade association, worked with four gamers to connect with Generation Z consumers on dairy farming.
2. All social media sites are pretty much the same as this point. In short, don't choose a site based on functionality (e.g. live video). Choose one over the other based on the audience you want to reach.
3. Nonprofits that smell raise more money.👃🏽
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause
1. Corporate Giving Manager, Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region, Colorado Springs, CO
2. Associate Director, Corporate Partners, Forte Foundation, New York City
3. Membership Manager, Better Cotton Intiative, Remote ($85K)
4. Part-Time General Manager, Giving Forward, Remote
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. Here's a good reminder for when you get in front of that prospective employer and they ask you about your "network". No, I am not your black book.
2. I'm a history buff so I ❤️this. The storied history of giving in America. If you want to trace philanthropy all the way back to Aristotle check out this new book.
3. Heck, I've been practicing 'slow work' for my entire career. Maybe you should give it a try.
Have a question, comment or just want to say hi? Just hit reply or head over to Twitter.
