Top tips for fundraisers seeking new corporate partnerships
September 2020
As we come to terms with the post pandemic fundraising environment, more and more organisations are seeking out corporate partnerships to give their fundraising a much needed boost. If you’re thinking of following suit, here is our Corporate Connections approach to getting started.
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Start with why
With lots of charities vying for a single corporate partnership, standing out from the crowd is a must. Define what you’re asking for, why you want it and how it aligns with the corporate’s strategy. We encourage you to look beyond the obvious and realise new, realistic opportunities.
At Prospecting for Gold, we offer a free meeting to assess your current position, potential, and to point you in the right direction. With the help of a short questionnaire, we look at your charity’s corporate fundraising history and connections. From there, we'll make some initial recommendations to start you on the right path.
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Identifying opportunities
We usually suggest following our initial assessment with the development of a bespoke corporate prospect research plan. This involves meeting with your team (relevant staff, supporters, and trustees) to review:
- your corporate fundraising aims: donations, sponsorship, partnerships, and gifts in kind
- how much you want to raise
- what the money will be raised for
- natural corporate supporters for your cause
- any ethical constraints and GDPR compliance issues.
Building on this, we can help you prepare a plan which covers:
● a detailed company research brief
● an estimate of how many company directors are already connected to you
● ways to use existing donors to open doors to companies
● positioning corporate fundraising as part of an integrated fundraising strategy
● developing your corporate fundraising skills.
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Getting started
Once your corporate research plan is ready to go, it’s time to get the whole programme up and running. This can be done in-house or we can work with you to design an approach that suits your budget. This includes activities such as:
• researching the best 50 -100 company prospects
• help with drafting and testing your corporate fundraising proposition
• mapping out other company connections you may have
• reporting on company directors who already give to you
• helping you to develop a series of monthly company briefing and prospecting meetings
• interviewing key contacts with companies such as Directors, CSR leads and marketing leads
• developing an ethical corporate and due diligence policy
• training your team
• coaching and mentoring you in your relationship with companies.
For more information about cultivating the best corporate connections for your cause, get in touch with us by email at info@prospectingforgold.co.uk or call us on 01491 577311.
