2024 is not off to a good start for me.

My dog, "Charlie the Yorkie," died Friday morning.

My wife and I were away in New Hampshire just after Christmas when my son called. Charlie was coughing a lot, and it was affecting his breathing.

Speeding home, we rushed Charlie to a doggie emergency room, where doctors diagnosed him with a collapsed trachea.

Yorkies have delicate tracheas, and we had spent years treating Charlie's with medication. But his trachea had finally failed…

Happy New Year! 🥳🎉🍾

Three things this week.🎶

1️⃣ A big thank you to everyone who took my survey before the holidays. My goal was to get 5% of my subscribers to complete it. I hit 7%!

2️⃣ Everyone who completed the survey was entered into a random drawing to win a Selfish Giving tee. The first batch will go out this week! Some of you will be getting vintage and collectible CauseTalk Radio tees! 🤩

I'm sending another batch out next week…

Two things this week.✌️

1️⃣ With the holiday on Monday, I won't be publishing a newsletter on Wednesday, December 27th. I'll be back in your inbox on Wednesday, January 3rd. Happy holidays!

2️⃣ Over 2% of my newsletter subscribers have taken ​MY YEAR-END NEWSLETTER SURVEY​! Thank you!

However, I want to get to 5% of my subscribers.

Can you please (pretty please) help me by completing it…

Don't forget ​tomorrow's webinar​ on how sales coaching can turbocharge your partnership team's success. We have two fabulous presenters.🤩🤩

• Dan Cohen, Founder, Cause Partners

• Courtney Davidson, Corporate Partnerships, Wounded Warrior Project

I've got an early holiday gift for you.🎁

A Zoom webinar with me, Dan Cohen, Founder of Cause Partners, and Courtney Davidson, Associate Director of Corporate Partnerships at Wounded Warrior Project.

Dan and Courtney will dive into how sales coaching can turbocharge your partnership team's success by moving prospects through the pipeline swiftly and effectively.

Mark your calendar for ​Thursday, December 14th, at 1pm EST​….

Who's had success recruiting new corporate partners at events like trade shows?

Anyone? Anyone?

It's not something I'm an expert on.

That's why I'm glad ​I came across this interview​ with Brian D'Erario, a partnership expert who's worked with several well-known publications, including Morning Brew.

He offered some solid advice we can use at the next trade show we attend…

Whenever I finish a case study for a client, I remind them this is only the first draft, meaning the case study should evolve and adapt to different prospects.

This makes clients nervous because while they are happy to hire me to write the case study, they don't want to rely on me to make every change.

So, I've been exploring how the free version of ChatGPT can help my clients update the case studies independently….

I'm at Georgetown University this week teaching in the New Strategies Program in the business school.

Teaching at Georgetown is a regular gig, but this session is slightly different.

It's called the New Strategies "Rising" Program, focused on small nonprofits with budgets under one million, and many operate on much less.

My goal is to show them how to recruit event sponsors and cause marketing partners. It's not an easy task as they are small and have limited staff, time, and likely little experience working with companies beyond grants.

Here's what I'll recommend….

The second most popular article in my newsletter last week was on ​how nonprofits could use Instagram more effectively​.

You loved it so much that I thought I'd give you more social media advice.

Don't include links in your social media posts.

Here's why….

In a recent issue of The Drum, UK Marketer Harry Lang used a ​simple 3-point star​ to define the potential benefits of cause marketing for each party: consumer, company, and cause.

According to Harry:

"It's about identifying a great fit and maintaining a shared commitment and balanced equity for both parties. The cause and the brand must share a common mission and objectives, and the audience (media and customers) must feel that the union is appropriate and not disingenuous."

This month's thought-provoking article in the Harvard Business Review is titled ​3 Ways to Determine What Your Customer Really Values​.

Let's change the title to 3 Ways to Determine What Your PARTNER Really Values and see what we can learn about corporate partnerships.

Consider where they sit on these three scales when approaching a prospective partner. ⚖️ The author suggests you do this in the order presented….

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 a little pumpkin spice mixed in??

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

This week I want to share a case study project I just finished with the wonderful Abby Horrigan, Senior Director of Corporate Initiatives at Keep America Beautiful (KAB).

As a seasoned corporate partnership professional, Abby knows how important social proof is in securing partnerships. That's why she partnered with me to write several case studies and to improve KAB's corporate partnership landing page.

Together, we...

While I didn't find any great examples of cause marketing in Italy, ​as I did last year​, I did find a potential cause marketing opportunity in my inbox when I got home.

This is for those readers who always ask me for ideas for LOCAL CAUSE MARKETING.

"Joe, we don't have a lot of chains in our area, just lots of independent and mom-and-pop businesses. How can we do cause marketing and raise some moolah?" 🤑

Scrolling through the thousands of emails I got while I was away, I came across this ​bakery crawl​ in my hometown of Newton, Massachusetts…

For the next two Wednesdays, I'll be in Italy and then Washington, D.C., and I will NOT be publishing a newsletter again until Wednesday, September 27th.

Last September, we visited Rome, Sorrento, and Pompeii. Incredible trip! This year, we are visiting Florence and the Tuscany region.

Any great recommendations on good restaurants or unique places to visit are much appreciated!