Newsletter: How One nonprofit Prioritizes the Right Leads with an IPP 👯; How to Do Cold Emails📮; Pizza Hut, Cause Marketing & The Art of the Scam 🍕
When Courtney Davidson joined Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) in January 2024, staff across the country juggled corporate prospecting alongside other priorities, without a shared way to focus on the best opportunities. Every second counted, but every prospect got equal attention.
Sound familiar?
That’s when she and her team hit pause and asked a hard question: What makes a company the right partner for us?
The answer wasn’t in a hunch or a logo wish list. It was in the data. Courtney and her team built an Ideal Partner Profile (IPP)—a detailed, research-backed blueprint of the companies most likely to say “yes” and stick around.
I wrote about building an IPP last fall. Courtney had already started developing hers, but my post gave her confidence that she was heading in the right direction. 🥰
Here’s how Courtney and her team did it—and why it works.
✅ First: Get Aligned on the Why
Their goal was clear: increase mission-critical revenue by spending more time on high-potential partners and less on dead ends. Many relationships had stalled, with little strategic alignment or insight into the company’s goals beyond a single volunteer connection. It was time to get focused and intentional.
🧩 Then: Build the Profile
They started with deep research. Using iWave and manual sleuthing, they compiled the attributes of their most successful partners alongside companies that support like-minded nonprofits. Key factors included:
Industry relevance
CSR and ESG priorities
Employee count and number of locations
History of giving (especially to similar causes)
Marketing goals and decision-maker access
They analyzed prospects on “affinity, ability, and authority”—a smart filter to weed out well-meaning but low-capacity prospects early.
🔍 Don’t Forget the People
A company isn’t a partnership. A person is. They profiled not just the companies but also the right internal contacts—folks in CSR, community engagement, or marketing with decision-making power. No more chasing the VP of IT just because they responded to your LinkedIn message.
📊 Finally: Prioritize and Score
Using a simple ranking system, they scored each prospect. Those with high alignment rose to the top. Those with no budget, no mission fit, and no decision-maker access? They were disqualified early, allowing the team to focus its time where it mattered most.
The result?
Less time on dead ends, more focus on high-potential leads, and stronger alignment across the team, with some early wins pointing to even more opportunity for growth.
🧠 Bonus: Use ChatGPT to Get Started
AI can help you brainstorm, spot patterns in past partnerships, and draft compelling profiles—it even suggests names like “Community Catalysts” or “Resilience Builders” to bring them to life.
Bottom line: If your team treats every lead the same, you’re not just wasting time but leaving money on the table. An IPP helps you chase better, not more. And when the right lead shows up? You’ll know exactly what to do next.
✍️ Partnership Notes
In my "Partnership Notes" section, I share stellar corporate partnership programs and show you how to do your job better!
1. Kleenex supports the National Park Foundation with a substantive and creative campaign.
💡The fundraiser couldn't be more critical for America's national parks. Trump's deep and painful cuts to the National Park Service will make our nation poorer.
But there's a silver lining: National park nonprofits are booming.
💡Are cold emails vastly underused? Maybe. Here's how to do them right.
3. Applebee’s locations give customers self-service tablets so they can scan the menu, place their order, pay their bill...and contribute to charity. Customer donations to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for pediatric cancer research tripled from $150,000 to $373,000 from July to September 2024.
💡In point-of-sale fundraising, the human ask can give your campaign a powerful edge. However, digital asks on a tablet or pinpad have one big advantage: consistency. They never forget to ask.
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
In my "Marketing Your Cause" section, I share strategies to grow your brand and audience—two key ingredients for securing more partnerships.
1. To promote and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution in Concord, Massachusetts, businesses and nonprofits are offering Revolutionary Concordians Trading Cards in exchange for making a purchase, taking a tour, or engaging in another activity.
💡How can your nonprofit forge partnerships with local organizations to amplify your initiatives and foster a sense of communal ownership?
2. Points of Light's monthly advice column, Ask a CSR Friend, is a smart example of thought leadership. It tackles real-world challenges corporate social impact leaders face in employee engagement.
💡Great thought leadership lives at the intersection of what you do and what your audience cares about. Don’t just be good—be good for something.
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause
In my "Cool Jobs in Cause" section, I share open partnership positions so you can discover your next adventure.
1. Corporate Alliances Manager, USO, Remote
2. Director, Corporate Partnerships and Engagement, Good Reason Houston,
Houston, TX
3. Corporate Relations Specialist, Conquer Cancer, Alexandria, VA
4. Development Director, Brite Energy Innovators, Cleveland, OH ($90k - $105k)
5. Fundraising & Events Specialist, Brite Energy Innovators, Cleveland, OH ($58k - $65k)
🧠🍌 Brain Food
In my "Brain Food" section, I share things that spark inspiration, fuel curiosity, and bring a smile to your face!
1. Did someone say free pizza? When cause marketing meets The Art of the Scam.
💡How one family turned Pizza Hut's BOOK IT! cause marketing program into their own personal pan pizza pipeline.
2. I always say please and thank you to AI because when our robot overlords start incinerating humans, I want one to pause and say, “Not him. He was polite.”
Turns out my AI manners are expensive.
💡12% of AI users are polite out of fear of future consequences—and I’m proudly one of them.
3. You’ve heard of the March of Dimes. But the Spill of Dimes?
💡If you want to add more loose change to your coin canister program, pack your metal detector and head to US Route 287 in Alvord, Texas.
