Here are some tips from the team at For Momentum to maximize your fundraising benefits by fully engaging your corporate partners:
As you plan for your 2018 event cycle, you no doubt already have strategies in place for your team captains, volunteer coordinators and media partners. You have likely tapped into the local university and connected with every friend on Facebook. But have you reviewed your corporate partnership program lately?
Chances are, it may be time for a corporate partnership refresh.
Here are some tips to maximize your fundraising benefits by fully engaging your corporate partners:
- Make corporate partnerships meaningful. While mission alignment matters, how a company activates is even more important. Ask the question: Can your participants recall who your corporate partners are? Help your corporate partners show up in a way that your participants care about and showcase your mission through their activation efforts. Here’s an even tougher question: Would your participants miss your corporate partners if they were gone? If the answer is ‘no,’ then you know what to do.
- Value your assets. One of the top reasons that companies partner with nonprofit organizations is to get their employees and customers involved. Do you offer employee engagement opportunities before, during and after the event? Don’t sell yourself short. This is one of your most valuable assets. But make sure their product/service is something that your audience cares about; otherwise, it is not so valuable.
- Update your technology. Check your fundraising platforms to ensure that your systems can handle multi-channel outreach. Can you accept donations via mobile device and provide automatic thank-you responses with links to tax receipts? Make sure that you can capture participant information as well as donor information. These ‘peers’ could end up being the organizations biggest donor/advocates/volunteers.
- Leverage the assets of your partners. Review all the ways that your corporate partner communicates, both internally and externally. You can provide event training tips to be included on the companies’ intranet or weekly email to employees. A great way to share your story is to create client videos that the company can tag and share on its social media channels. In-store signage, digital publications and in-kind media support are other great ways to spread the word.
- Collaborate, don’t compete. Make sure that your local and national offices are working together. A few months ago, For Momentum conducted a research study that examined the partnership dynamics between national and local offices. Results show that many local officers were not aware of revenue sharing guidelines and welcomed additional training to successfully deliver sponsorship benefits. Click here to view the results and implement the remedies.