The dog days of summer are here! It seems like the perfect time to ask you a favor. Choose ONE ACTION below....

Do you love getting my newsletter? Do you find it useful? Do you look forward to getting it every week? If so, first, thank you! I'm writing it just for you. 😀Second, please forward it to others who might enjoy it?

OR

Are you a sporadic reader? Did you open it today just hoping to find something interesting to distract you from your work, which probably isn't in some aspect of corporate partnerships? Do me a favor and hit the unsubscribe button at the bottom of this newsletter.

The other day on the James Altucher Show marketing guru Seth Godin was asked how to accomplish our work in the world. According to Seth:

Zig Ziglar used to say, "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want." I just like the help other people get what they want part.

You should adopt this approach for corporate partnerships.

The North Face, which turned mountain-climbing into a conversation about inclusion with Walls Are Meant For Climbing campaign, is broadening the effort this year, focusing on more public climbing walls.

The program culminates on World Climbing Day, August 18th. TNF plans to donate $1 for every person who climbs that day, with a cap of $100,000. Although TNF is continuing its partnership with The Trust for Public Land (we interviewed them on CauseTalk Radio in September), these funds will go to the Khumbu Climbing Center.

Just about every day someone asks for my opinion on something related to corporate partnerships. Frankly, I expend most of my breath debunking myths about partnership practices! My best responses include lots of facts and figures to support my position. But, honestly, good research is hard to come by. 

That’s one reason I’m so excited about a new report from For Momentum, an Atlanta-based agency that specializes in building strategic cause alliances. Their new report High Expectations: Corporate Partnership Decision-Makers Research Results is full of myth-busting stats on what companies are REALLY looking for in a nonprofit partnership…

As I forewarned you two weeks ago, this is a super-abbreviated version of my newsletter as I'm finishing up my summer vacation to England. It's been fun! But I'm looking forward to returning to regular programming next week.

Cheers!

I love holidays because cause marketing campaigns tend to be clustered around them. Last week's holiday, Independence Day, was no exception. My favorite campaign last week? A hashtag campaign from Keep American Beautiful (KAB) and Fishbrain. The latter bills itself as the most popular mobile app for people who love fishing. They have four million users! There truly is an app for everything, right?

Working together, KAB and Fishbrain launched the largest-ever one-day crowdsourced audit of litter in the U.S. App users were encouraged to remove litter while fishing and upload the images with the hashtag #trashoftheday.

I loved this campaign for two reasons…

Happy Fourth of July! Because of the holiday I'm publishing an abbreviated newsletter this week.

I'll be back next week with a full newsletter. But as I'm in London the following week, you may see another abbreviated newsletter on Wednesday, July 18th. Try to be patient with me. 🙂

Two weeks ago I wrote about using Facebook to promote your corporate partnerships. I mentioned that in some states it may be illegal to promote your partnerships because of commercial co-venture laws.

That's not quite true, according to my supah-smaht friend and cause marketing lawyer, Karen Wu….

I don't leave Boston often, but when I do it's for two reasons. The first is to visit YOU to help with your your cause marketing campaigns. The second is to to go London! Did you know that I'm a yuuuge Anglophile?

That's why I'm heading to London next month and I want to meet you for a Cup of Joe! If you're interested in learning more, just hit reply. The first week of July I'll send you an email with a time and location. I'm staying near Westminster Abbey (I know, so touristy!) so it will be near or at my hotel…

Here's a fact for you. Corporate partners expect you to promote their partnership with your nonprofit. And they want that promotion done digitally. Your snail mail print newsletter isn't going to cut it.

To accomplish this for partners, nonprofits have two challenges…

Years ago I used to work for a chamber that hosted networking events. Members came to these events to meet new people. But that's not what happened.

People either talked to people they already knew OR to new people that were similar to them in occupation and/or status. Sales people would talk to sales people and CEO's would talk to other c-level executives. Watching this happen month after month, I concluded that networking events are a better place to catch up with friends than make new ones.

So what's a better way to meet new corporate partners?

Today on CauseTalk Radio, Megan and I talk to....each other! We share our plans for CauseTalk Radio. (Don't worry! We'll be back.) In other news, Megan and I also share our favorite shows of 2018.

What's our big news? Which shows did we choose? Well, you'll just have to listen to find out!

Since arriving in the U.S. in 2015, Red Nose Day has raised a whopping $145 million. Most of that money has come from red nose sales at Walgreens stores, which raised $20 million in 2017 alone. We interviewed Linn Jordan, Director of Retail Marketing for Walgreens, about its efforts on behalf of Red Nose Day back in 2016 and it's worth a listen.

A few key takeaways on Walgreen's successful fundraiser…

Today on CauseTalk Radio, Megan and I talk to Ryan Baillargeon, CEO of Toronto-based Grassriots about the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and why nonprofits should be paying attention to it.

On the show, Megan, Ryan and I discuss…

The big news this week is that I'm at the Engage for Good Conference in Chicago Wednesday and Thursday. For cause marketing geeks like me #EFG2018 is like dying and going to heaven! It's that much fun!

Are you at the conference too? Or are you in Chicago (even for the day!)? I would love to meet you. I look like this guy --->>> That's me throwing down some wisdom at last year's conference. Super serious, right? 🙄You can meet me one of two ways…

Today on CauseTalk Radio, Megan and I talk to Chris Jarvis, Partner, Realized Worth and Executive Director, RW Institute, about a recent episode of the Freakonomics podcast entitled Does Doing Good Give You License to be Bad. The show makes some pretty serious claims about CSR programs that we examine and debunk!

On the show, Megan, Chris and I discuss…

The next time you're on a call with a partnership prospect I want you decide what kind of decision maker they are. I’ve decided that decision makers can be lumped into one of these three groups: Thinkers, Feelers and Deferrers. Most people are a combination of all three, but one style usually dominates. And that's where you want to double down on

🤓Thinkers: Thinkers are my favorites because they are most like me! They want to hear the rationale, the logic behind an opportunity and why it makes sense for their business. They like facts, figures, research, statistics, data and any other analytical information to drive their decision….

Today on CauseTalk Radio, Megan and I talk to Kate Hayes, Director of Direct Impact for Echoing Green about their unique efforts to spot emerging mid-career business leaders and invest deeply in their success to accelerate their impact in the social sector.

On the show, Megan, Kate and I discuss…