By: Mollye Rhea
As we head into the end of the year, planning for corporate and nonprofit cause partnerships in 2025 is a task many nonprofit and corporate partnership practitioners are taking on.
Over our decades of experience, we’ve discovered how teams create win-win partnerships where the corporation can enhance its brand reputation, increase customer loyalty and fulfill its corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals, while the nonprofit can gain financial support, increased awareness and audience engagement.
To optimize pipeline productivity, we’ve outlined three key strategies for planning effective corporate and nonprofit cause marketing partnerships and created a partnership planning checklist to help you check all the boxes for success in the coming year.
Step 1: Define Partnership Goals
Begin with the end in mind. What are your goals for partnership in the coming year? By the end of this partnership planning process, your team should be clear on current partners moving forward and what gaps in funding or activation type new partners can help fill. You should also have a plan for brainstorming new ideas with current partners.
As you review your current partners and determine what type of new partners to add, you will want to ensure. This will create a genuine connection that resonates with your target audience.
Next, creating an impact assessment will help your team evaluate the potential impact of the partnership on both organizations. This assessment should consider the alignment of goals, target audiences and the potential benefits.
Consider: A short selling season will not set you up for success. The partnership sales process takes time. Typically, the more complex the partnership, the longer the close.
67% of nonprofits indicated that it takes 4–12 months to sign a partnership agreement. (If you want to close a partnership deal sooner, in-kind gifts and awareness activities with no financial commitment typically close within 6 months.) (Taking the Pulse of Partnerships: Nonprofit Perspective, 2023, For Momentum)
Step 2: Assess and Optimize Current Corporate Partnerships
Begin your budgeting process by forecasting current partnership opportunities. Ensure your team is clear on the status and needs of current partners in the coming year. Identify areas for organic growth. Assess gaps in funding and new activation support your partners may need. Establish specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) goals for the partnership. This will help you track progress and evaluate success.
Identify relevant KPIs to measure the partnership’s impact such as increased brand awareness, sales, donations or volunteer engagement.
Consider: Are your current corporate partners aligned with your mission and are you providing them with yearly fresh and unique ideas to activate the partnership?
Developing unique and fresh cause campaign activations is reported by CSR practitioners as one of the biggest challenges in working with nonprofits.
Step 3: Identify Potential Partners
Cultivating new corporate partners is essential to building a healthy partnership pipeline. Before beginning the prospecting process, develop a clear strategy for identifying the right prospective partners. If you’re looking for more in-depth strategies on building a healthy prospect pipeline, check out our three-part series.
Consider: What unique value proposition can you bring to corporate partners, and how can you best showcase this value to get your foot in the door? Don’t discount the fact that a local partnership or employee engagement activation can be a great starting point for building rapport with a corporate partner.
The most valuable benefit companies aim to receive from their cause marketing partnerships is providing support to local communities (55%), followed by increasing company/brand favorability (40%). Generating tangible impact in selected mission space (36%) and improving employee engagement tied for third with 36%.
Planning for the year ahead but need extra hands for partnership cultivation? For Momentum has helped connect hundreds of nonprofit and corporate partners to raise funds and awareness through our partnership identification and outreach services. If you’re new to partnership cultivation or just need a boost in finding the right partners, we’d love to help.
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