03 Mar How To Get More Donor Partnerships for Your Nonprofit (From a PR Professional’s POV)

How To Get More Donor Partnerships for Your Nonprofit (From a PR Professional’s POV)

By: Jennifer Vickery, National Strategies Public Relations

We work with for-profit clients that want to give back to the community, do something good and make a real difference. We encourage them to partner with select nonprofits to form relationships and facilitate new ways that they can help. Inevitably our clients get busy and the next thing you know, it’s already a year later and the partnership never happens.

We see this all the time, unfortunately. The for-profit wants to partner, but they don’t have the time or capacity to make the initial relationship happen or develop creative ideas.

Here’s some advice on how your nonprofit can have a competitive edge to get in front of such for-profits and make meaningful relationships happen.

Start with a roadmap. If you know that March, for example, is Women’s History Month, and your nonprofit supports women in some way, lead with that. Reach out to several for-profits and tell them how you support women and explain why you’d like to partner with them for some excellent corporate social responsibility opportunities. Spelling it out can make the opportunity come to life. They’ll be able to see how they, in turn, will benefit from the relationship and how they can play a role. Offer a day and time for a call and see where the conversation leads.

Come up with specifics on how you + the organization will make a difference. You probably know the exact amount of funds needed to help your cause. Whether $1.55 feeds a family of four or a $350 donation provides shelter, lead with exactly how much you need to make a difference. Telling the organization this information upfront makes it less intimidating to write a check. They can set a budget to fundraise and know that they can make a difference no matter what they raise. Some companies are shying away from the large check presentations given the uncertain times. Letting them know their efforts make a difference and breaking it down into more ‘bite-sized’ goals makes it seem more attainable.

Offer your PR and Marketing Tools. Tell organizations how you plan to notify the media of the new relationship or effort and promote them on your social media accounts. This goes a long way in showing that you want this to be a  mutually beneficial relationship. One-sided relationships are often not sustainable. Pull out your marketing tools, vendors and teammates to make an impact for the donating organization. This will add appeal to your nonprofit.

Getting your nonprofit connected with for-profit partners may not always be easy and can sometimes take a lot like fishing; however, making these simple changes will set you up for success so that you and your partners can reap great rewards.

About Jennifer Vickery: Jennifer is the President and CEO of National Strategies Public Relations, a PR firm that focuses on nonprofits and organizations with corporate social responsibility initiatives. Her background is in national public relations campaigns where she oversees every aspect of PR strategy utilizing her 16+ years of senior-level experience. She’s worked for hundreds of national clientele through every facet of PR. She has extensive experience, which includes writing a regular column for a newspaper, producing a health television segment, serving as a radio personality for advocacy issues, producing a weekly radio show, to owning and running a successful public relations firm. Jennifer states media relations, community outreach and goodwill, in addition to strategic planning as her favorite aspects of PR.

Jennifer is truly inspired and lives every day knowing she is making an impact on the lives of people in the community by providing expert information and the best-of-the-best in businesses, community involvement and goodwill.