Despite my best attempts to snatch it away from him, Charlie isn't quite ready to give up his Christmas pillow! Smahht 🐶.

And I'm not quite ready to jump into 2022. See you next week!

Happy holidays! I'm wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year! Below are ten of my most popular posts from 2021.

See you next year! 🎉🥳🎊🍾😘

Per usual, Andy Crestodina over at Orbit Media Studios has written another outstanding post, this one on Formats & The Funnel: How 17 Content Marketing Formats Align with Lead Generation.

Smahht partnership teams understand that they need specific content to move prospect from Awareness ➤ Consideration ➤ Action.

At the top of the funnel is the AWARENESS stage when it's all about getting the attention of your target prospect. Partnership teams can do this with blog posts, social media, curation and guest posting….

I put together my holiday planters last week, and I used the traditional advice that every gardener follows in container making: Thriller, Spiller, Filler.

1. Thriller. Something tall that will make people say "WOW!" In my container this is the winterberry branches. It gives the arrangement height and pop.

2. 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.

3. 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.🪴

I'm not….

Last week it was the secret formula for storytelling success according to Marvel Comics. This week it's why you should use pets in your nonprofit marketing.🤷‍♂️

I'm not sure why, but a publisher recently sent me a new book called Pet Nation: The Inside Story of How Companion Animals are Transforming Our Homes, Culture, and Economy. It's a fascinating read. The overall message is that pets are more beloved and more omnipresent in our lives than just about any other time in history.

I know this is true for me. I absolutely love my dog Charlie.❤️🐶…

I just finished an article in the New York Times on a man who wrote a book on his experience reading 27,000 Marvel Comics. According to the author, the secret formula for a successful superhero comic book is:

Monsters👹 ➕ Romance❤️ ➕ Superheroes🦸🏻‍♀️ ➕ Topicality⏰

I've been thinking that this formula also works well for nonprofit storytelling. Let me explain….

First, I want to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving. 🦃 I'm very thankful that YOU read my newsletter every week. 🙏

Second, watch this video👆from creative agency Public for Meals on Wheels America. It will definitely warm your heart ❤️ and might just encourage you to 'Give a Little Bit' over the holiday.

Finally, I want to use this week to answer some of the frequently asked questions I get from readers. Maybe you've had similar questions, but you just haven't had a chance to ask. Now you know the answers…

It's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I'm already thinking about Christmas.🎄🎅🏼

Ever since I was a kid I've been a huge fanboy of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, which was published way back in 1843. I collect Carol memorabilia and have seen EVERY version of the story. I've even held three first editions of the book in my sanitized hands. One that is housed at the Burns Library at Boston College, and two that are kept under lock and key at the British Library in London.

Every year for Christmas I ask Santa for the same thing: My own first edition of A Christmas Carol. But he's never gifted me one, and I think I know why (and it's not because of my bad behavior). First editions of this slender book in excellent condition can cost up to $40,000! But who knows, maybe this year I'll finally get a first edition in my stocking. 🧦📕🤞

While I wait and hope, your nonprofit could benefit from A Christmas Carol this holiday season….

My first interaction with Auntie Anne's Pretzels was two years ago when I wrote a case study on their outstanding partnership with Alex's Lemonade Stand.

However, my most recent exposure to them was this past weekend when I listened to their social media manager, Bari Rosenstein, discuss how she manages Auntie Anne’s social media.

Interestingly, Bari is a recent hire AND is a social team of one.🤭 Nonetheless, she's done outstanding work, and had some great tips that are very applicable for time- and staff-strapped nonprofits….

Since I started Selfish Giving way back in 2004/5, I've had a very simple business model:

I publish valuable content on win-win partnerships and readers contact me with business opportunities.

It really is that simple. Crazy way to run a business, right? But I love it this way! ❤️❤️❤️

I can't remember the last time I made a cold call. I don't have to! You contact me before I can ever pick up the phone or hit send on an email.

It's a wonderful business because it's built on me serving you first. I give and eventually I get enough to earn a good living that's fun and rewarding.

However, one thing I haven't been clear enough on is all the different ways we can work together….

Yowza! 🤩

We've gotten some great questions for our Cause Docs clinic tomorrow, Thursday, October 28th at 2pm EDT. Joining us are Philips McCarty and Charisse Brown Marcus from the social impact consultancy Good Scout.

They'll be answering all your questions on how to effectively grow your partnership team.

Here are just a few of the questions Phil and Charisse will be answering…

The Cause Docs are back! 🩺🥼

Joining us on Thursday, October 28th at 2pm EDT are Philips McCarty and Charisse Brown Marcus from the social impact consultancy Good Scout.

Whether you are a one-person department or a team of ten, Phil and Charisse will be answering your questions on how to effectively grow your partnership team.

As your corporate partnership program grows so does the demand on internal resources. Phil and Charisse will help you determine where the most critical investments need to be, types of roles you need to plan for during the growth phase, and how better to align with other internal departments to ensure partnership success.

They'll be sharing their prescriptions on…

There's an old saying that you can't hook a fish that won't open its mouth. That's certainly true in corporate partnerships when a potential prospect won't return your calls or emails.

The question is, what should you do? Should you keep calling, or should you move on?

That's the subject of an article Dan Cohen (aka the pleasantly persistent corporate partnership consultant) sent over to me: 5 Ways to Handle the Prospect Who Won’t Respond.

Dan wrote:

One thing I strongly believe about corporate partnerships is that companies look for audiences to tell them what is good, popular and profitable in this world. In short, nonprofits with a strong and engaged audience that they can readily communicate with will attract more corporate partners than one without an addressable audience.

The second thing I strongly believe is that to build this audience you need to choose a keystone content asset. I prefer email - for a lot of good reasons - but you may choose a podcast, a blog, social media (maybe not Facebook or Instagram, etc.

Let's face it, nonprofits don't have the time, staff or energy to focus on more than one content asset. You're just fooling yourself if you think otherwise. Stop doing crappy work on five channels and do outstanding work (i.e. audience-building) on just one.

Are you ready to get started?

I don't use LinkedIn a lot, but I know a lot of you do for your partnership work. More than once people have asked me for help in this area.

🤷‍♂️

Thankfully, I ran across someone who can help: Data scientist Christopher S. Penn.

After doing some deep research on the machine learning that powers LinkedIn, Christopher conducted an experiment.

He asked: "What would happen if I picked one channel - LinkedIn - and did what the algorithms were looking for?"

This is what he did…

Why are round-up fundraisers so popular and effective?

I always thought it was because the requested donation never exceeded 99 cents, which made it easy (and cheap) for shoppers to donate.

This may be true, but I recently read about another possible reason.

Kristen Berman of Irrational Labs shared a study last week in Lenny’s Newsletter on a fintech app that wanted to help its users pay down debt faster, saving them thousands of dollars in interest.

Kristen's company created a basic A/B email test on a random selection of the company's users…

I recently finished writing a bunch of case studies for Penn State Health Children’s Hospital, a member of Children’s Miracle Network. I was happy how they came out, but what I was really impressed with is how the team at Penn State Health used them.

1. They gave the case studies their very own web page. A dedicated page will make it easy to share the case studies with potential partners. A web page will also be indexed on all the major search engines, which means it will be discoverable in search - an added bonus…

With Labor Day over, the end of the year will be here before you know it! Time to start shopping for my Christmas present! 🎁 But really...

What's your partnership strategy for Giving Tuesday (Monday, November 30th) and the holiday season?

Here are a few resources that will help you….