Newsletter: Better Sponsorship Packages with Thriller, Spiller, Filler 🤝 ; Mini USA Aims to Put More Pets in Passenger Seats 🚗 ; Get Your Partnership & Marketing Teams on the Same Page 📖
I put together my holiday planters last week and I used the traditional advice for making containers: Thriller, Spiller, Filler.
Thriller. Something tall that will make people say "WOW!" In my container this is the winterberry branches. It gives the arrangement height and pop.
Spiller. Something that spills over the side of the container and softens the edges. In my container this is the gold-tipped cedar branches you see around the sides of the pot.
Filler. Something that fills in the container so you don't see any soil and enhances the thriller and spiller. The pine cones, berries, other greens are all Filler.
You might be wondering why the heck I'm sharing container arrangement advice in today's newsletter.🪴
Ok, here's why:
You should use Thriller, Spiller, Filler to create better sponsorship packages.
Thriller gets a partner's attention. It's 'the wow factor' of the benefits you're offering. For example, say that you are recruiting sponsors for a gala. The thriller in your package might be a super-exclusive VIP reception before the gala where sponsors can network with decision makers. You can have more than one Thriller in a sponsorship package, but the mistake most nonprofits make is not having even one. Big no-no.
Spiller is an additional benefit that exists outside the primary asset. A Spiller benefit in your gala package would be a separate volunteer opportunity for your partner's employees. Or maybe you would host a webinar with the partner. Or invite them to write a blog post for your web site. Prospects like Spillers because they broaden the benefit of the sponsorship. The nonprofit benefits too as it show prospects that you have strengths in other areas.
Filler is everything else in a sponsorship package. Signage at the event? Filler. Logos on t-shirts? Filler. Mention in the gala program. Filler. You get the point. Every sponsorship package has Filler, and it's perfectly fine and necessary. The problem with most nonprofits is that they lead with Filler and not with Thriller. Remember, Filler enhances the Thriller and Spiller. It's not a standalone, but that's just how nonprofits treat it...and then they wonder why they get turned down.🤔
✍️ Partnership Notes
1. Brands are using purpose-driven content to build a stronger connection with customers. How can your nonprofit supply content, expertise to help companies hit a bullseye?
2. Mini USA knows the power of pet marketing, hence the partnership with Best Friends Animal Society. (Did you see my post last week?). Over 60 percent of Mini owners are pet owners.
3. Love this idea of a one-day rolling cause marketing program.
"Digital financial services brand Ally kicked off the program at brunches across the city, picking up tabs for coffee, pancakes and other morning treats at a variety of diners. Then it was on to Rockefeller Center where the brand paid for an hour of free ice skating for a group of lucky consumers. At lunch, Ally made its way to a local food pantry where it covered the cost of 200 Thanksgiving meal kits ahead of the holiday....To wrap the day, Ally headed to hospitals in New York City’s Harlem and Queens boroughs to gift new parents $500 to help cover the cost of diapers and other baby essentials."
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
1. Focus groups are a great way to learn more about your audience. Here's how to process their feedback in a way that gives your nonprofit actionable insights.
2. How to get your marketing and partnership teams on the same page.
3. I have to admit I often fall into this trap: Telling stories using a problem-solution format. Here are four other ways that break the problem-solution mold. I like #1: Take readers behind the scenes.
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause
1. Corporate Engagement Manager, Common Threads, Austin, TX ($49k - $61k)
2. Senior Manager, Community Partnerships, Soles4Souls, Colorado ($78k - $95k)
3. Vice President, Corporate Philanthropy, United Way, Tampa, FL
4. Associate, Fund Development, Blessings in a Backpack, Chicago/Remote
Do you have a partnership position you are trying to fill? Hit reply and share the job posting with me! I'm happy to post it here for FREE.
🧠🍌 Brain Food
1. Fascinating: How GoFundMe changed fundraising with social media.
2. The next big sponsorship opportunity is the moon.🌙
3. So, this is what I do at night. First, I read that Monkees guitar player Mike Nesmith had died (RIP, Mike). His obituary leads me to Nesmith's mother who invented Liquid Paper and sold the company in 1979 for $47 million ($180M in 2021). She died the following year and Nesmith inherited half her fortune (more money than he ever made with the Monkees, BTW). Finally, I read an article on how even in the digital age "correction fluid" is still thriving, but is being used differently than first intended.🖌
Yes, I know that half of my readers have no fricken idea what I'm talking about, and for that reason, I'm not taking any questions.🤫😉
