Finding the Right Corporate Partner 101

By: Mollye Rhea

 

According to Giving USA’s report, corporations gave $36.55B to charities in 2023. Many nonprofits benefit from partnerships with corporations to help further their development goals. Building corporate-nonprofit partnerships requires effort and planning, but the rewards are often well worth the investment. We’ve broken down the first steps to connecting with corporate partners for practitioners new to this type of fundraising.

 

Step 1: Determine Partnership Goals

Determining your partnership goals is your first step in forming a partnership with corporations. There are numerous ways that your nonprofit can benefit from corporate partnerships— knowing your goals will help you determine the best corporation to partner with.

Questions to consider:

1. Is your goal to build awareness? Awareness campaigns can significantly increase your nonprofit’s social media and online presence. They can also allow you to capture the attention of new audiences and engage new potential donors. Here is one example of an asthma awareness campaign increasing awareness by 908%.
2. Need more fundraising? A great  example is Chile’s Create a Pepper for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which raised more than $100M. Participants colored a Create-A-Pepper sheet and visited their local Chile’s to donate and turn it in.
3. More interested in digital engagement? Overall, 55% of people who engage with a nonprofit on social media take action.

 

Step 2: Find Companies That Support Your Cause

The second step is to find the companies that align with your mission. A quick Google search can give you some information, but we also highly recommend using an AI chatbot tool to help narrow down companies that are interested in your specific cause. This is a starting point. Digging into corporate websites that have records of past partnership campaigns, including how they successfully executed them, will give you a good baseline for where to begin your partnership communications.

 

Step 3: Go Deeper, Not Wider

Once you research corporations connected to helping your cause, find multiple contacts within those companies. We have found more success with our outreach process by tapping more people at the right companies rather than randomly targeting large businesses that are not closely mission-aligned.

Partnerships with corporations can be a great way to gain brand awareness and increase donations for your nonprofit. Through For Momentum’s Partnership Identification and Outreach, we help nonprofits find, engage and convert the right corporate partners. We can help you execute your plan with a well-designed campaign strategy and ongoing support as we coach your staff to:

• Create partnership materials
• Identify optimal prospects
• Conduct research
• Build on relationships year after year

If you’re looking for strategic corporate partners to further your organization’s mission, reach out to For Momentum ,and let’s talk about ways we can help.