Newsletter: How to Identify & Research Corporate Prospects 🔎; Six Retailers to Add to Your Prospect List 🏬; Wounded Warriors Loses $90M 📉
Thanks to everyone who attended the virtual sponsorship summit last week. It was great! If you missed the summit be sure to listen to our interview with sponsorship guru Chris Baylis on CauseTalk Radio. Also, read the case study on Children's Miracle Network'sefforts to recruit sponsors for their dance marathon program.
That completes our second goal of the year, which was to learn more about how to raise more money with sponsorship. We're ready to tackle our third goal of the year, which readers identified via a survey back in January: how to identify and research corporate prospects.
To address this topic, Catalist's Brittany Hill and I are hosting a FREE webinar on identifying and researching corporate prospects. During this 60-minute webinar on Thursday, May 3rd, you'll learn:
1. Recommendations on the most significant data points and factors to consider when rating the strength of a potential corporate prospect.
2. Suggested tactics for opening new doors to corporations (after your warm leads and board relationships have dried up!).⌛️
3. Tips for effective corporate prospect research.
4. Industry-leading case studies and exclusive insights from CSR executives on right-fit partnerships.
Be sure to join us!
New stuff from me 😊
This week on CauseTalk Radio, Megan and I talk to Pam Avesian, vice president at women's retailer Chico’s FAS, about their involvement in Habitat for Humanity's Home is the Key cause marketing initiative that's now in its second year.
Partnership notes 📝
🍨Ashby's Ice Cream donates 1% of Michigan Pot Hole Ice Cream to repairing local roads! FTW!
🚜Two weeks ago I asked readers if anyone was working with retailer Tractor Supply and their whopping 1,700 locations in 49 states. Nicole Beckley from National FFA Foundation raised her hand!
"Tractor Supply does a donation at checkout campaign to raise funds for FFA. This usually coincides with our annual National FFA Week and raises money for grants to local FFA chapters to develop or improve an agricultural project (read some great stories about these projects here). This year, they raised a record-breaking $830,000 for these grants. They also sell co-branded t-shirts with our annual National FFA Convention & Expo theme as a fundraiser each year. We do a lot together to benefit the more than 650,000 young members that FFA serves."
Congrats on a great program, Nicole!
🏬Combined, these six retailers have nearly 4,000 stores, but they are not the darling retailers that you hear about everyday. Are they on your prospect list! But you should know: the way these retailers will raise money for your nonprofit is changing.
Test your knowledge of cause marketing law with this short quiz! I'll wait...OK, how did you do? Need a refresher? Check out this podcast and infographic.
🚂Which toy maker does corporate responsibility better, Hasbro or Mattel? It comes down to promotion.
🏦Bank of America talks about investing in Water.org and earning a return.
⛰The good folks at Cone Communications had a nice round-up of Earth Day cause marketing. Also, did you make it to the 4th Annual Cause Marketing Summit last week? If not, Whitney Dailey from Cone did a nice write-up of the four key takeaways from the summit.
Marketing your cause 🤑
Is your boss one of those people who won't approve any content that isn't a fundraising pitch? Mark Schaefer has some great suggestions on turning the tide in favor of educational content that builds trust with supporters.
📊Recent research shows that most corporate support goes to big name charities. What's a small charity to do?
🗞While I'm a big believer in being the media, here are six ways to generate more media coverage this year. I like #3: be the expert.
Cool jobs in cause** 😎
National Director, Corporate Relations, American Lung Association (Oregon)
Senior Development Manager, Cause & Retail, National 4-H Council (Chevy Chase, MD)
**Have your cause-related job featured here? Hit reply or email me at joe@selfishgiving.com.
Brain food 🧠🍌
🗽Crowdfunding steps in when Memphis loses state funding after confederate statue removal. As Nonprofit Quarterly wrote: "It’s also about power and who gets to make decisions about public spaces, narratives, and actors." A Civil War museum in Richmond is taking the right approach.
🤕Ouch.
☕️I am so on this! Starbucks is offering $10 Million to come up with a compostable cup design.
🍪Thousands of girls are joining the Cub Scouts instead of the Girl Scouts. One 9-year old: “I feel like they [Girl Scouts] make cookies.”
Need some help? Have a question, story suggestion or category you wan to see covered? Just leave a comment! 🙏
