This week on the Nonprofit Jenni Show, Kim Patterson, Director of Development for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in Middle Tennessee, shares how she build relationships with new corporate sponsors, creates appeals to ask for their support, and keeps them engaged with LLS’s mission for the long term.
3 Tips for Approaching New Corporate Sponsors
Kim Patterson is currently the Director of Development for LLS, but has also been an active board member for many other nonprofit organizations. She was incredibly generous with her time on my podcast this week sharing her strategy for how she approaches corporate sponsors! I encourage you to listen to our full interview here. Here were my biggest three takeaways from our chat:
1. It’s better to ask someone in your network to connect you with a corporation than to just cold-call a potential sponsor.
It’s no secret that the most successful nonprofit relationships begin with a personal connection. Whether we’re talking about individual donors or corporate decision makers, people are more likely to support your organization if someone they know and trust explains how your mission has had a positive impact on their life.
Kim encourages nonprofit leaders to look for corporate sponsors by starting with your current network. Which corporations do you already have connections with through your board members, donors, and volunteers? From there, you can research the corporations that share a mutual connection with your organization. Get to know their values, their social responsibility goals, and how their business works. Then, ask the person in your network to make an introduction and accompany you to your first meeting with a decision maker at the corporation.
2. Don’t start with a pitch deck; start by building a relationship.
Kim explains that when she first meets with a corporate decision maker, she leaves her sponsorship pitch deck behind. She doesn’t go in with a fundraising agenda; she goes in asking lots of questions to get to know the decision maker and the corporation.
Her goal is to understand what is important to the corporation so that she can approach them with a customized appeal in their next meeting. When she presents an appeal, she can then say, “You told me you’re really interested in [this specific cause], so here is a specific opportunity that meets that need.”
3. Ask for the bigger dollar amount.
If you’re not sure which sponsorship level to pitch to a corporation, Kim recommends that you err on the side of asking for too much. She says, “They already know that if they just gave you $1,000, you’d be grateful for that. So think big and ask for the bigger amount. … Don’t say ‘Oh, you can give any amount from $100,000 down to $1,000.’ That’s sort of assumed!”
If the corporate partner lets you know that you’re asking for too big of a donation, you can always ask additional questions to find out more about their giving preferences and come back with another opportunity that better fits their needs.
Listen to My Full Interview with Kim
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Jenni’s Favorite Resources This Week
Learn Grant Writing: Learn Grant Writing sponsored this week’s podcast episode because they love empowering passionate people to raise money for their favorite causes. Check out their free webinar about how to become a grant writer!
Giving Day Campaign Planner: Does your community have a local giving day coming up? My 6-week giving day campaign planner includes a step-by-step planning timeline, with suggested tasks to craft and promote your local giving day fundraiser this spring.
6 Ways to Work With Business Partners: Looking for more inspiration for your partnerships with corporations and local businesses? Listen to this recent episode of the Nonprofit Jenni Show to learn six different ways you can ask for corporate support.