Newsletter: Who Must You Engage with in Corporate Partnerships? 🤔 Retailers Use Precious Store Space to Showcase Causes Instead of Products 😇 ; Lush ‘Bath Bomb’ Supports Teaching Truth in History 🧼

I came across the above graph when I was reading Big Duck's newsletter. You should really sign up for it. I always find something useful and interesting.

While Big Duck uses the graph to illustrate how your nonprofit should think about its audience when it comes to communications (a smahht strategy, BTW), I also think it's applicable when your nonprofit is thinking about corporate partnerships too.

Let me explain.

Right in the bullseye of this target is Who Must You Engage With? (WMYEW). The answer to this question will be different for every nonprofit when it comes to corporate partnerships.

⭐️ If you are a super-small nonprofit with very limited resources or staff (you might even be a team of one!) your answer may be companies that are the lowest of the low-lying fruit. Maybe you have a passionate board member who owns a chain of stores and is eager for a partnership and promises to do most of the work. That's your WMYEW!

⭐️⭐️ If you are a smallish nonprofit with a modest team your answer may be to hire a partnership professional who can solely work on individual donors and board members with business connections. And don't forget about monetizing your keystone content asset with corporate support. That's your WMYEW!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you are a bigger nonprofit with resources and big aspirations your answer might be to grow your corporate partnership team so you can expand beyond WMYEW and start working with businesses you should and could engage with. While smaller nonprofits are challenged because they don't have any staff to work on corporate partnerships, larger nonprofits are woefully understaffed. I like to say that what gets staffed gets done! Make sure your staffing plans match up with your aspirations.

So which one is you?

• Are you doing nothing when you could be doing something? 🤔

• Are you doing a little when you could be doing much more? 🤔

• Are you stuck in first gear when you should really be going full steam ahead? 🤔

✍️ Partnership Notes

1. Jersey Mikes Sub's used to support hundreds of charities during its annual Month of Giving in March. But for the second year in a row they are only supporting one nonprofit and are aiming to raise over $10 million. Congrats to that organization - and it's a great one - but what about all those other small nonprofits that used to rely on JMS for support before 2020? 🙁

2. Why Timberland and others are using precious store space to support causes instead of showcasing products. “We sell everybody a product once. But what is creating that stickiness of, ‘This is a brand I stand behind. This is a brand I want to be an evangelist for?’"

3. Companies have really expanded on the types of causes they are willing to support. Look no further than cosmetic retailer Lush, which has released a Knowledge Bath Bomb to support the teaching of truth in history. Truth even has a scent: a lightly scented fizzer of vanilla and lyang lyang!

Forget soaking in the tub with this bath bomb. It sounds good enough to eat! 🧼😋

Impressively, this cause product has released more than just delicious aromas. Preliminary figures indicate that its raised $250,000 in funding over the two-week period after it launched in February! 👏👏

🤑 Marketing Your Cause

1. Audience building is the key to your nonprofit's success. Start by building trust.

2. Bigger charities with dozens of partners should be interviewing them on podcasts. Think of it as an audio case study!

3. This could be a good strategy for the partnership page on your website. Ask visitors to enter their email address, but also ask them to check a box gauging their level of interest in your organization.

😎 Cool Jobs in Cause

1. Assistant Director, Member Recruitment, Center for Corporate Citizenship - Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA

2. National Corporate Relations Director, American Heart Association, Remote

3. Corporate Relations Officer, Catholic Charities of San Francisco, ($73k - $100k)

4. Senior Officer, Corporate Partnerships, Save the Children, Fairfield, CT

5. Managing Director, Blessings in a Backpack, Multiple Locations

🧠🍌 Brain Food

1. Harriet Tubman was such a badass. I love her even more now that I know she was also a naturalist.

2. I have to pick up Mel Brooks' new memoir. It sounds like a hoot! And he has some great advice: Say yes and never do it.

3. Be like Zelensky.✊️