Newsletter: The Anti-Partnership Partnership Strategy ❌🤝 ; Why You Should be Prioritizing Fame​ Over Awareness 🤩; The Economics of Girl Scout Cookies 🍪

I got a reader's message after sharing my ​Partnership Solicitation Process Map​ two weeks ago.

"Wow. Corporate partnerships are a lot of work. Not sure it's worth it."

True story.

Most nonprofits don't realize how much money, time, staff, and energy they need to invest in a corporate partnership program to make it successful.

👉🏻 👉🏻 Today, I want to suggest a corporate partnership approach that 90% - maybe even 95% - of nonprofits should adopt.

I call it the Anti-Partnership Partnership Strategy (APPS).

Here's how it works.

We begin by acknowledging some uncomfortable facts about companies and the partnerships we forge with them.

💸 Companies are cheap. Corporate giving savant Curt Weeden, who founded the New Strategies Program at Georgetown University, where he and I teach, has a dramatic way of demonstrating the steep decline in corporate giving over the past four decades.

He lines up five people, the first of whom is standing. Each person that follows is asked to crouch lower than the last until the last person is almost sprawled on the floor. That's how far corporate giving has fallen in the past generation!

It now averages less than one percent of a company's pre-tax profits.

📊 The reality of corporate support. Unless you are the United Way, City Year, Product RED, Children's Miracle Network, Junior Achievement, or one of the handful of other charities that lead with corporate fundraising, most nonprofits - based on my 30 years of experience in the field - raise just 5-15% of their revenues from companies. The lion's share of their money comes from individuals.

🔥 Corporate partnerships are time and staff-intensive. I recently spoke to a nonprofit that's had significant success with corporate partnerships. It's impressive.

Oh, did I mention they have 14 people on their corporate partnership team?

An experienced and talented partnership pro oversees the team as vice president. The team also includes business development people to recruit new partners, account managers to steward existing ones, and marketers to create valuable content - like case studies - that make selling and stewarding easier.

That one person you hired to sell, manage, and market your corporate partnership program? I'm sorry to break the bad news. They don't stand a chance.

Ok, enough of the bad news.🌧🌧

You can still do corporate partnerships but should adopt an anti-partnership partnership approach.

Being anti-partnership means not focusing on partnerships directly. Instead, you focus on the foundational activities that naturally or easily produce partnerships.

How to succeed with an anti-partnership partnership strategy

Make audience-building—growing individual support for your cause—a priority. You are likely already doing this because you know the real money is in individual giving. Confident that you are on the right track, you should double down on your efforts.

Track the employers of your key donors. If they are enthusiastic supporters, they would likely be great advocates for engaging their company with you. Give special attention to donors who own and run private B2C companies, as they can quickly cut through any red tape, expedite a partnership, and raise some serious cash.

Grow your audience (aka individual supporters) on ONE keystone content asset. Companies look for audiences to tell them what is good, popular, and profitable in this world. If you've built an engaged audience, companies will find YOU.

The challenge with most nonprofits is that they either have no audience to speak of or their audience is so stretched across so many channels (e.g., Facebook, Youtube, Email, etc.) that it's not bright enough for anyone to see. That's why you should focus most of your efforts on building your audience on ONE CHANNEL.

To be clear, I don't think suggesting you have a keystone content asset is asking you to do something extra. You should already be doing this; it's table stakes. This means if you're not doing it, you should STOP doing something else so you can do it. Yeah, it's that important.

It may seem strange that a person who makes his living consulting on corporate partnerships would suggest to 95% of his readers that they should adopt an anti-partnership partnership strategy.

But as Henry David Thoreau said, "Any truth is better than make-believe." I genuinely believe that but don't think I'm undermining my business.

Corporate partnerships are within the reach of most nonprofits, but they should take a more streamlined approach to recruiting partners.

Rather than hiring permanent staff, most nonprofits should work with a temporary consultant, such as myself or someone I can recommend, to manage and execute a partnership when the opportunity arises. This will be dramatically easier, better, and cheaper than hiring staff.

The story about the fish from ​Soul​ comes to mind. I've never seen the movie, but I am familiar with the clip.

I heard this story about a fish.

He swims up to an older fish and says, “I’m trying to find this thing they call ‘the ocean.'”

“The ocean? The older fish says, “That’s what you’re in right now.”

“This?” says the young fish. “This is water. What I want is the ocean!”

Bottom line: Most nonprofits should not aggressively pursue corporate partnerships. Instead, they should narrow their field and partner only with companies within their reach or network. In short, go after the easy stuff, the lowest low-lying fruit.

Do you agree or disagree? Hit reply and let me know.

✍️ Partnership Notes

1. The ​8 most difficult types of prospects​ and how to deal with them without losing your mind or job. Ugh, the "overly demanding prospect"...🤢

2. This nonprofit hospital ​desperately needed more blood donations​ - and better incentives than the store-bought cookies and juice it usually gives donors. The creator of the cronut came to the rescue.

3. Looking for a unique way to reach out to prospects? ​Paypal payment notification = 100% open rate​. Give someone your two cents!

🤑 Marketing Your Cause

1. Why ​prioritizing fame​ should be your nonprofit's top goal🔒. (🔒 = This article may be behind a paywall. However, I can email it to you.)

Getting more than your 15 minutes

According to the author...

Fame is the single most effective objective any campaign can have. "Whether you’re seeking market share, sales, profit, penetration, loyalty, or reduced price sensitivity,'fame-driving campaigns outperform others on all business metrics.'”

Fame beats awareness. "Sure, everyone’s heard of you. But when was the last time you put out a campaign the average consumer could remember a year later?"

Fame is better than purpose. "The Ice Bucket Challenge didn’t become a worldwide phenomenon because of its purpose to end ALS. Hundreds of fundraising campaigns a year try to do that. It became famous for a much simpler, perhaps even puerile reason: it’s funny to watch people’s reactions when they have a bucket of cold water poured over their heads."

Fame requires risk. "...Fame isn’t built by ‘staying in your lane'...You must consistently delight your existing audience while always being ready to seize opportunities to reach new ones."

The author suggests a four-step process that is worth checking out.

2. How to use AI to write nonprofit website copy that doesn’t suck ​[VIDEO]​. Some helpful advice from my friends at Wired Impact that you can use to improve the partnership page on your website.

3. Your partnership prospects are thirsty for ​research-backed thought leadership​. For example, 43% of decision-makers said that high-quality thought leadership offers concrete guidance and case studies.

😎 Cool Jobs in Cause

1. Director, Account Management, Corporate Partnerships, ​National Park Foundation​, Washington, DC

2. Assistant Vice President, Corporate Partnerships, ​Dana-Farber Cancer Institute​, Brookline, MA

3. Associate Director of Corporate Partnerships, ​Children's Aid​, Manhattan, NY

🧠🍌 Brain Food

1. I joined Julia Campbell on the ​Nonprofit Nation podcast​ to discuss how AI and case studies can boost corporate partnership success.

2. This was a fun read: ​The economics of Girl Scout Cookies​ (or how the cookie cash crumbles!).

3. I've wanted to refresh my website, ​Selfish Giving​, for a while, but 2024 is the year I actually did it!

A big thanks to website designer ​Bailey Eidahl​. I highly recommend Bailey if you need a Squarespace website or want to refresh your site like I did. She was terrific to work with.

Thanks for reading this week! As always, let me know if you have any questions or if I can be helpful in any way.