Looking to change the world, and get your message out to more people than ever before? Consider partnering your nonprofit with a corporate sponsor – here’s why.
The fact that you’re running a nonprofit organization, whatever your end goals, is awesome. You’re trying to change the world, and that’s incredible. But even if you’re an expert at what you do, you can always be better.
That’s where Corporate Social Responsibility comes in.
Allow me to back up a bit. See, plenty of large and mid-sized enterprises have realized that the best way – bar none – to generate buzz for their brand is to foster goodwill with their audience. They’re working to be more authentic, more personable, and more socially-conscious.
And so, they form a Corporate Social Responsibility department. They hire personnel whose sole job is to reach out to prospective nonprofits that their organization might partner with. They start seeking on-brand ways that they might change the world for the better, and nonprofits like yours are the best place for them to start.
“There is nothing in business today that provides as much economic and social benefit, on as many levels, to as many stakeholders, as a strategic partnership between any combination of the nonprofit, for-profit, education and government sectors when focused on the greater good,” Cause Marketing’s founder Bruce Burtch. “Nothing else comes even close.”
Armed with the resources of a corporation, your nonprofit’s reach will increase a thousandfold. You’ll have access to donors, venues, and locales that were previously just pipe dreams. You’ll become part of a strategic network that will strengthen everyone involved, and possibly even have the opportunity to network with like-minded organizations.
At this point, some of you are wondering what the catch is.
Basically, the short answer is that you can’t partner with just any corporation. You need to find one whose brand personality meshes with your own values. Ideally, you’ll want to find a business whose audience has at least some overlap with your donor base.
Beyond that, there are a few questions you’ll need to answer, as well…
- Marketing. What sort of materials will the corporation use to promote your organization, and how will you contribute to those materials? What social platforms will you use?
- Contributions. What will each partner contribute to the relationship? The corporation will probably offer more than cash and resources, and you might have relationships with certain vendors or businesses that the corporation is interested in leveraging.
- Target audience. Who will you be targeting with your corporate partnership? Will you focus on a small segment of the corporation’s clientele, or will the two of you try for a broader approach?
A corporate partnership can be exactly what your nonprofit needs to reach incredible new heights. Provided you choose the right enterprise to partner with, it can allow you to spread your message to new donors, bring in larger donations, and ultimately change the world far more effectively than you could alone.
