10 Steps for Establishing Corporate Funding Partnerships for your Non-profit

Fundraising is basically the non-profit counterpart function to marketing in for-profit organizations and needs to be carried out using the same skills and techniques. So if you find yourself saddled with the responsibility of initiating and building corporate funding partnerships on behalf of your non-profit, here are ten practical steps that can help you achieve some measure of success;

1. Conduct a feasibility study: if you find yourself pioneering corporate fundraising for your non-profit in a new market, the first thing you need to do is carry out a feasibility study to ascertain market readiness. Should you get positive feedback from your research, then the next thing you want to do is look for low hanging fruit which in this case could be the existence of any global partnerships with your non-profit affiliates in other countries that can be leveraged locally. However, if you’re stepping into an already existing corporate fundraising role, a good place to start would be to review handover notes from the previous occupant of your role to determine the existence of any subsisting local partnerships, lapsed partnerships and all other ‘works in progress’. These can be helpful in cultivating warm leads.
2. Study your organization’s corporate fundraising policy: to determine if there are any restrictions with industry sectors you plan to approach in line with your organization’s values. You don’t want put in all the hard work of cultivating a partnership and have senior management deny approval at an advanced stage…
3. Familiarize yourself with your non-profit’s mid-term plans: non- profits typically develop 5 year plans in which they prioritize action in certain areas. As a corporate fundraiser, you need to familiarize yourself with the objectives of these plans so you can establish programme links with the CSR priority areas of your prospects for the corresponding period.
4. Develop an effective target list of prospects: working ‘smart’ rather than ‘hard’ is common sense in the 21st Century. Guided by your organization’s corporate fund raising policy, you need to draw up an effective target list of prospects you plan to approach.
5. Conduct background research on your prospects: the typical starting point for this is to look for areas of synergy between your non-profit and each prospect on your list. The links you are looking for will most likely be found in the CSR section of your prospect’s websites or in their annual CSR reports. Look for evidence of current programs that they are sponsoring to see if they link with your organizations area(s) of intervention for the period. A good central resource for finding this information is the annual ‘Collective Social Investment Report’; an annual CSR Encyclopedia published by ‘CSR-in-Action’, a Lagos based non-profit at the forefront of promoting best CSR practice in Nigeria. I am confident that similar resources can be found for other countries.
6. Develop your USP/Pitch: bearing the busy schedules of your prospects in mind as well as the fact that there are probably several other non-profits out there who are making similar approaches as you are, you need to be able to effectively make the case for why each prospect should fund your work rather than others within a 2 minute time span. Corporate fundraisers with previous door to door/street/mall fundraising experience might have an advantage in this regard being that they are used to delivering ‘elevator pitches’. Regardless, when it gets to that point in the conversation, you need to be able to demonstrate the value your non-profit is offering and establish a ‘need to engage’ as quickly as possible.
7. Identify the relevant officers you need to speak to for each of your prospects: again In Nigeria the resource mentioned in step 5 above is equally helpful in providing this information. Otherwise you might need to do some asking around or just do some good old cold calling/emailing to find out who you need to be to speaking with.
8. Map your network of contacts: because you want to try to cultivate as many warm leads as possible, the next thing to do is to map your network of personal and organizational contacts against the individuals you have identified in sep 7 above. You might want to take a fresh look at your Linkedin and phone book contacts. Colleagues, senior management and board members of your non-profit are also an invaluable resource for generating useful contacts. Attending business/CSR events that offer networking opportunities is also very helpful in building a network of valuable contacts.
9. Schedule and attend meetings: Once you've gotten leads to the relevant people you need to speak with for each of your prospects, you want to get straight to the business of contacting them and scheduling meetings so you can orally present your case for support. The first meetings are usually exploratory in nature and you should expect to be asked to send in a formal funding proposal at the end of discussions.
10. Identify and bring in the relevant programme experts: first because you need their support in designing and developing the proposal, and also because you will need them to defend it in subsequent negotiation meetings with your prospects. You will also need the support of your finance team in developing a corresponding budget for the proposal.

I hope you find these tips useful. Wishing you resounding fundraising success in 2015!