Newsletter: Tomorrow: Pricing Your Sponsorships 🤝 ; Water.org and Gap Partner to Expand Access to Safe Water 💦 ; Will Using AI Include Taking a Pay Cut? 🤔
Tomorrow is the day!
Larry Weil (aka The Sponsorship Guy) and I are going live on LinkedIn at 1pm EDT for Are You Underpricing Your Sponsorships? Is Dynamic Pricing the Answer?
In this information-packed 20-minute conversation, Larry and I will discuss:
• The hidden ways organizations underprice sponsorships
• How fixed-price Gold/Silver/Bronze packages are limiting revenue potential
• How dynamic pricing could change the way sponsorships are sold and valued
• Practical ways to think differently about sponsorship pricing and sponsor value
Most organizations spend their time trying to find more sponsors. But what if the bigger opportunity is pricing sponsorships more strategically? 🤔
✍️ Partnership Notes
Two partnership insights that matter.
💧 The most credible partnerships tackle a company’s hardest questions.
A new campaign from Water.org and apparel retailer Gap aims to expand access to safe water worldwide. What makes the partnership interesting is that denim production is also notoriously water-intensive. Twenty years ago, many companies avoided causes that highlighted tensions with their own business. Today, stakeholders increasingly expect the opposite. The takeaway for partnership teams: the most credible partnerships don’t run from complexity. They acknowledge it. Supporting a cause is powerful. Showing how you’re addressing your connection to the problem may be even more powerful.
🌱 The best partnerships don’t always start with a check.
When the White House lawn was damaged following an event, ScottsMiracle-Gro stepped forward with $1 million in financial and product support to restore it. Politics aside, the partnership offers an important lesson: the most valuable corporate contributions often come from a company’s expertise, not its wallet. Scotts isn’t just funding the solution—it is the solution. For nonprofits, that’s a useful reminder. The best partnership prospect may not be the company with the biggest budget. It may be the one whose skills, products, and know-how directly solve your problem.
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
One move you should steal.
💌 Before you ask for a gift, make sure you’re telling the right story.
The Internet Society increased digital fundraising revenue by 621% after discovering that supporters cared more about internet privacy than the organization’s broader mission. Armed with that insight, the team redesigned its email onboarding, impact stories, and donation appeals around what supporters actually valued. The takeaway for nonprofit marketers: don’t assume you know why people care about your cause. Ask them. Sometimes the biggest marketing breakthrough isn’t a new tactic—it’s discovering what your audience wanted to hear all along.
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause
Find your next adventure.
🤝 Director, Corporate Partnerships, The Mental Health Coalition, NYC
🤝 Director of Corporate & Strategic Partnerships, Ohio Children's Alliance, Columbus, OH
🤝 Partnerships & Development Manager, Touched by Type 1, Remote in Central Florida
🧠🍌 Brain Food
One thing that is feeding my thinking.
🤖 Soon, you’ll be required to use AI—and maybe take a pay cut. [Gift Link]
A Wall Street Journal article examines the backlash after insurance giant State Farm announced changes to agent compensation, benefits, and performance expectations while introducing new AI-powered sales tools. The reaction wasn’t really about the technology. It was about the deal. Many agents felt they were being asked to embrace a more efficient future while giving up compensation and benefits they had spent years earning. It’s a question many professionals, including those in the nonprofit sector, may soon face: if AI makes organizations more productive, who shares in the gains? The technology may be new, but questions about trust, fairness, and value creation are as old as work itself.
