I recently finished writing a bunch of case studies for Penn State Health Children’s Hospital, a member of Children’s Miracle Network. I was happy how they came out, but what I was really impressed with is how the team at Penn State Health used them.

1. They gave the case studies their very own web page. A dedicated page will make it easy to share the case studies with potential partners. A web page will also be indexed on all the major search engines, which means it will be discoverable in search - an added bonus…

With Labor Day over, the end of the year will be here before you know it! Time to start shopping for my Christmas present! 🎁 But really...

What's your partnership strategy for Giving Tuesday (Monday, November 30th) and the holiday season?

Here are a few resources that will help you….

This is the last newsletter before Labor Day (aka "the unofficial last day of summer") and I just want to say thank you!

🙏 Thank you to everyone who has emailed me this summer thanking me for publishing this newsletter every week. Folks - as Mark Twain said - I can live for two months on a good compliment!

I'm currently feasting on this one.…

I'm dropping these two knuckleheads off at college. Cate will be a senior at George Washington University (School motto is "God is our trust"🙏), and Ryan will be a freshman at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Go Goats! 🐐).

I'll see you next week….

Just because you're selling partnerships for a nonprofit doesn't make rejection by a prospect any easier. It hurts when you get turned down, right?

I asked Dan Cohen (aka "The Grand Poobah of Persuasion") for a salve for you wounds. Here's what he said.

"All great sales people share one quality: resiliency," said Dan. "If you don't have the ability to bounce back after rejection you'll never survive in sales. I don't care what you sell."

Three tips from Dan….

The link most clicked in my newsletter last week was an article on how to avoid email spam filters and reach your subscribers' inbox.

I'm glad you're thinking more about email because I really believe it's critical to your success with partnerships.

Now that you've avoided those dreadful spam filters, here are three things to do so your email gets opened. (Getting your emails read is another ball of wax.)…

This article in Event Marketer specifically talks about the post-pandemic landscape for sports sponsorships, but it could be easily be applied to nonprofit event sponsorships.

Let me paraphrase...

1. You now have an at-home audience you need to appeal to. If you opt for hybrid events, you have to find ways to deliver the event experience to couch supporters. For example…

Another article - this one from the Tampa Bay Times - questioning the audacity (No, the GALL!! I'm clutching my pearls) of a retailer asking for a donation at the register!

Oh, the misery! 😩 Oh, the effrontery! 😠 Oh, the embarrassment! 😬

Give. Me. A. Break.

There is no violation, but checkout charity IS VOLUNTARY. So, if the cashier asks you to donate and you don't want to, take it from Nancy Reagan: JUST SAY NO….

Last week I read a wonderfully detailed article on Hubspot called Sales Email vs. Cold Call: When to Use Each According to Data. The article was even written by a Boston guy, which increased my respect for it even more.

But then I thought, "I wonder if Dan Cohen (aka 'The King of Cause Sales') would agree with his advice?"

Heck, maybe the guy who wrote this article isn't even from Boston?? Maybe he's a Yankees fan hiding out in the 'burbs?? Brrrr.

Dan's a busy guy, but fortunately he got right back to me…

I'm proud that my newsletter has inspired others to start a newsletter or to improve the one they have. Since I've fielded a number of questions on newsletters this past week - and it's on my brain - here are a few bits of newsletter advice!

1. Consistency (almost) trumps quality. Sure, your newsletter has to be good. That's table stakes. But people will never stick with your newsletter if it's not delivered consistently (e.g. daily, weekly, bi-monthly). You're trying to create a habit with readers, and if you're not consistent it will never happen. And believe me, consistency can be a grind. But it's also when the magic happens!

2. Send out your newsletter twice. The first time, send it out to everyone…

The Fourth of July is over, but I'm still thinking about it because it really didn't happen here in Boston. The whole weekend was a disaster. We got five inches of rain and we set a new record low temperature for July 3rd.

Don't get me wrong, the gahhden ❤️❤️❤️ the rain, but did it have to fall on a holiday weekend???

Of course, events were cancelled due to weather.

Every year I try to attend a reading of Frederick Douglass' speech, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? It was cancelled and moved to this Friday when the speech will be read at the newly refurbished Shaw Memorial that honors black Civil War soldiers. If you've seen the movie GLORY, you know the story….

I'll keep things short this week as everyone is probably thinking about vacation time, fireworks and BBQs. I know I am! 🏖🧨🌭

Something to think about on Sunday...

On July 4, 1845, Henry David Thoreau moved into a one-room cabin he had built on the shores of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts.

Thoreau wasn't seeking to live in isolation. Heck, he was only a half-mile from both the railroad and the main road into Concord. Rather, his move to Walden was a statement about who he was and what was important to him…

Prospecting Circles are one way to organize and prioritize potential partners. The circle nonprofits struggle with the most is suspects because they are cold leads (unlike prospects which is warm and supporters which is downright hot 🔥).

Nonprofits ask: "How do I get a cold prospect to talk to me?"

I thought I had a pretty good answer to this question: demonstrate overwhelming value. But I like digital marketing expert Rand Fishkin's answer better….

One of the articles I had planned to share with you this week was from Hubspot called Everything You Need to Know About Using Tie Downs in Sales.

I hadn't heard of "tie downs" before. The Hubspot writer defined them this way:

“Using sales tie downs allows you to check your assumptions around each of these points. They also get your customer engaged and saying 'yes' before the time comes for you to go for the close. Building up slowly can make things feel much more natural to your customer.”

I thought, maybe tie downs aren’t such a bad idea! But then I thought, WAIT! I should reach out to the guru of cause sales, Dan Cohen of Cause Partners, and ask him what he thinks of tie downs.

I'm so glad I did. Here's what Dan said….

We had a great Cause Docs clinic on INFLUENCER MARKETING last week with Lauren Lawson-Zilai, Senior Director of Public Relations & National Spokesperson for Goodwill Industries International.

In addition to watching the replay, you should download these two valuable resources:

• ​Goodwill's Influencer Toolkit​

• ​Sample Influencer Letter of Agreement​

Lauren also recommended these tools…

Join the Cause Docs Tomorrow, June 3rd at 2pm EDT as Lauren Lawson-Zilai, Senior Director of Public Relations & National Spokesperson for Goodwill Industries International, will be answering your questions on how to identify and work with influencers.

She'll be sharing her prescriptions on...

The Cause Docs are back! 🩺🥼

Joining us on Thursday, June 3rd at 2pm EDT is Lauren Lawson-Zilai, Senior Director of Public Relations & National Spokesperson for Goodwill Industries International.

Lauren will be answering your questions on how to identify and work with influencers.

She'll be sharing her prescriptions on...

I'm helping my 89-year-old mom settle into new home this week. I took this picture to showoff my bed-making skills! Pretty good, right? My mom didn't agree as she has a 36-step process for making a bed and I missed a few steps.

I'm also emptying out her apartment that she's been in for 30 years. Wish me luck! ☘️☘️

I'll be back next week….