Winning Corporate Partnerships | Linda Garnett & Sharon Dann - Stellar Partnerships
“Can you answer the questions of: What are you doing? Why now? Why specifally are you talking to me about it? If you can’t answer those questions, then you’re not prepared.”
Show Notes
A $250,000 charity partnership opportunity for women and families, offered by Target, caught my eye last week. As the managers of Target’s EOI process, I invited Linda & Sharon from Stellar Partnerships on to Grants Uncovered to talk more about this opportunity and corporate partnerships in general.
The quick wrap:
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What Target is looking for in their current $250,000 corporate partnership call-out
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What Target brings to an opportunity like this on top of the financial contribution itself, for example, their experience, reach, list size, marketing skills, PR
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What makes a partnership Expression of Interest (EOI) stand out
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Tips for applicants considering the Target, and other, corporate partnership opportunities
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Linda’s call for Australian charities to be more ambitious and to have more confidence when pursuing a potential corporate partnership
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Seeing corporate partnerships as a marriage, not a ‘friends with benefits’ arrangement
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The importance of knowing why you’re approaching that particular business and being able to answer these questions:
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What are you doing?
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Why now?
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Why are you talking to them specifically about it?
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A range of brilliant partnership examples, including
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R U OK? & the Yellow Pages
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R U OK? & Kit Kat
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Beyond Blue & Australia Post
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GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) & Save the Children UK.
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“Think about how much money charities are spending on direct marketing at the moment for their fundraising to direct market to 10, 20, 30,000. How much money does that cost them versus what Target can bring as an audience here? It’s absolutely invaluable for a charity.”
More about the episode
Having a diverse revenue stream is vital for not-for-profit financial sustainability. While grants can tick off one steam, corporate partnerships is another often untapped, or not often considered, revenue stream.
But corporate partnerships go beyond the funding itself as a stand-alone financial benefit, and can seriously raise the profile of the NFP partner.
Linda Garnett & Sharon Dann from Stellar Partnerships have combined experience of more than 30 years in corporate partnerships, so make the most of this opportunity to learn about how you can successfully tap into corporate partnerships and shoot your NFP onto a new growth trajectory.