I'm back! 🇮🇹 And what a trip!

The sites! The food! The coffee! The corporate partnerships!

While I unplugged from my newsletter for TWO WHOLE WEEKS (a new record for me), I never really stopped thinking about corporate partnerships. I even learned a couple things about partnerships when my wife and I toured the Colosseum in Rome.

Our tour guide was discussing preservation efforts at the Colosseum and how the Italian government had turned to the business community for support.

It turned out to be a tough sell. While it's common here in the U.S. for companies to support public treasures, it's less common in Italy.

However, ONE COMPANY did step up…

🎃 Have you noticed that pumpkin spice is like...EVERYWHERE. Candles, coffees, teas, chips, vodka, donuts, Twinkies, and PEEPS (my favorite!).

So, if everything has pumpkin spice in it this fall, shouldn't your partnership strategy also have pumpkin spice mixed into it???

Now, before you stop reading and conclude that the pumpkin has finally slid off Joe's pumpkin-flavored cracker, hear me out…

The gang at Remarkable Partnerships (RP) in the UK has released a helpful article for new corporate fundraisers. It's called 5 Top Tips for New Corporate Fundraisers.

I agree with every point! Those Brits are so wicked smahht!💂🇬🇧

However, let me take a moment today to expand on their points and offer a few key insights of my own…

Last week I was teaching in the New Strategies Program at Georgetown University on what I call audience-centric fundraising.

In a nutshell, I argued that to be successful with corporate partnerships your nonprofit needs to build an audience that knows, likes, and trusts you. This is important because companies look for audiences to tell them what is good, popular, and profitable in this world.

During my presentation, I highlighted several nonprofits that have done a great job at audience-building and have attracted major corporate support.

I also introduced a new example that I thought had great potential….

On Sunday I dropped my son off at college for his sophomore year.

At 8pm it's already dark.

I'm starting to see late-season blooms in the garden like goldenrods, asters, and pink sedums.

I can't believe September is right around the corner.

A new month! A new season!

Before publishing any more new content, I thought it might be helpful to review what I've written this summer to make sure you haven't missed anything that could be helpful…

Every other week I get a newsletter in my inbox called The Authority. It's all about how consultants like me can get more clients by being a visible authority in their particular area of expertise.

Last week, the author of the newsletter, Luk Smeyer, shared an article that's relevant to consultants AND to partnership teams.

Luk discussed the importance of targeting existing clients and referenced a graph from Forrester called the B2B Revenue Waterfall….

A couple years ago I noticed that while case studies were prized and used by B2B businesses, very few nonprofits used them. What surprised me even more was that most of the corporate partnership teams I knew didn't even use them - which made no sense to me whatsoever!

Since then I've written well over 100 case studies for partnership teams! Whether you write your own case studies, or have me write them for you (just hit reply to this email and we can discuss! 🥰), I've learned a few things along the way that I want to share with you…

I wanted to share a couple the answers I got to the two questions I posed to readers last week.

🙋‍♂️The first question was on whether having a media partner attracts corporate partners. The overall response was mixed. Some readers believed having a media partner helped recruitment, others didn't.

On the nay side, one reader wrote…

I got two questions from readers last week that I would like your help answering.

Here's the first question...

🙋‍♂️ "I am working on a plan for a major campaign and would love to bring on some kind of media partner (e.g. New York Times, New York Magazine, New Yorker, the Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, etc.). I'm assuming having a media partner would help us attract corporate partners. Do you agree, Joe? If so, could you provide an example or two?"

Now, I have an opinion on media partners. I wrote back...

Readers ask me all the time how I gather and track all the posts I share with you each week. Today, I'm going to share my process so you can create your own swipe file for corporate partnerships, or any other topic you're interested.

Finding Things to Swipe. Most of the things I find for my newsletter I get from 🥁....Yep, you guessed it: other people's newsletters!

I subscribe to around 100 newsletters. I used to subscribe to 200+, but that got way too unmanageable! I paired my list down by asking three key questions…

Last month 111 people signed up for my newsletter. Welcome! 👋👋 That's my best month evahh!! And in a summer month to boot!

For readers new and old, here's how to get the most out of my newsletter….

Since it's difficult to tie many nonprofit/for-profit partnerships to an actual boost in sales for the corporate partner (we all struggle showing this, right?), do partnership teams need to focus on the more nebulous "branding" benefits of supporting a nonprofit event or cause?

If so, can nonprofits learn from how stadiums market naming rights opportunities to corporations? Apparently, studies show that buying the naming rights for a stadium doesn't improve the bottom-line either! Yet companies line up for the privilege to pay millions to plaster their names on stadiums and arenas.

I realize there's a big difference between the two.😬 Still, I think partnership teams could learn a few things...

Over the past month, I've spoken to multiple partnership teams and my eyes literally rolled into the back of my head 🙄 when they told me...

✍️ They began their prospect emails with "Dear Prospect..."

📆 It took them a month to thank a partner for renewing their partnership.

💥 They never scheduled a time to discuss the impact of the partnership on them or the partner….

A working paper out of Stanford University's School of Business - and reported on in the Wall Street Journal - looked at millions of rides from NYC Yellow taxi cabs and how much riders tipped.

The research may help cause marketers develop better monetary asks for point-of-sale programs….

Here's a question I get a lot: "Joe, should we include a call-to-action (CTA) at the bottom of our partnership case studies?"

A CTA is a directive that encourages the prospect to take a next step...

"Schedule a call with a member of our partnership team"

"Sign up for our corporate partnership newsletter"

"Download this case study"

I don't recommend sending cold emails to prospective partners. I have a rule I've been teaching people during my coaching sessions that you shouldn't email a prospect unless you have...

• An overwhelming value proposition that must be shared (e.g. "The audience that attends my event is the perfect audience for your business...")

• A personal connection or referral that can put you on the prospect's radar screen. (e.g. "Joe Waters suggested I contact you...")

However, sometimes people just want to send that cold email to see what happens. It's like pulling the lever on a slot machine - it's irresistible for some people! 🎰

Here are my suggestions to improve your chances of hitting the jackpot with a cold email….

Did you miss me? I certainly missed you!

Thanks to everyone who replied to my last newsletter congratulating my daughter, Cate, on her graduation from George Washington University. And, wow, there are a lot of fellow GW graduates out there!

What a trip!…

①②③ Three things this week...

💰 Join me and Accelerist CEO Brittany 'Brit-Bit' Hill 💁🏻‍♀️ Tomorrow, May 12th @ 3pm EDT for the unveiling of the very latest research on giving at the register (aka Point-of-Sale fundraising).

Are you serious about cause marketing? If you are - and you should be! - you have to be serious about POS! Sign up now….