A Call to Innovate: Co-Branding

Could there be a better example of Cause Branding than the Nike partnership with Live Strong? Read more at Cone.

Per my last post, here is another follow-up to my “Hey, Nonprofits! Wake up! You can innovate or you can die” article.

Can you add more value to your sponsorships by exploring co-branding?

Just take a look at corporate giving over the past 6 months.

If you are not considering ways to give your sponsors more return on their investment – more marketing bang for their philanthropic buck – you are on the wrong side of a quickening trend away from hand-outs and towards hand-in-hand partnerships.

One of the greatest and yet untapped assets within your organization is its brand: more specifically, the relationships that customers have to your brand.

Leveraging these relationships can be an incredibly valuable opportunity for any corporation. Your organization should consider how it can deliver customers to a corporation, and then offer that opportunity at a hefty price:

-          The supporters of animal organizations are likely strong prospects for everything from Kibbles ‘n Bits to the local perky-poodle salon. Your pet shelter has great access and strong brand recognition among some core users of those products: monetize it!

-          The parents who send their kids to your summer camp are buying everything from super-safe Volvos to Kumon Math and Reading Centers’ tutoring. Gaining access to those parents is worth a fine penny to those corporations.

-          The hundreds of people who drive their cars to your museum are all in need of oil changes, car washes, gasoline, etc. What would one of these companies be willing to pay for their flyer to go on every windshield (or, better yet, handed to them by the parking lot attendant when they drive in)?

-          The side of your food pantry’s warehouse faces a highway. That’s a billboard just waiting to earn money for you!

Think about all of the ways that you engage clients, volunteers, donors and the general community.

Now, think of all of the sponsors whom you solicit throughout the year.

Sure, they might like buying a table at your event. But in this economy, how much more confident would they be in the value of that table sponsorship if it also included the opportunity to put one of their coupons at every seat? Or if their sponsorship were bundled with one of the opportunities above?

Do not limit yourself to the silos of your revenue streams: think creatively about ways to bundle your various “assets” together into a package for your sponsors, and work with them to understand their goals.

Read more about co-branding with a corporate partner -- cause branding -- at the site of the people who invented the term... Cone:

http://www.coneinc.com/cause-branding

What are the opportunities that you see at your organization?

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A Call to Innovate: Earned Income

Ben & Jerry give you a good reason to get fat: Social Enterprise / Partnershops

I previously penned the (subtly titled) article, “Hey, Nonprofits! Wake up! You can innovate or you can die.”

The piece included 20 questions that I’ll be exploring in more detail under the heading “A Call to Innovate.”

Here is the first question: Can you offset some of your philanthropic dollars with earned income?

Social enterprise. Social ventures. Earned income. Call them what you will, these efforts are an important part of the future of nonprofits.

That’s what everyone’s been saying for years.

But aren’t they also an important part of the history of nonprofits?

A few examples:

v      Thrift stores (i.e. Goodwill)

v      Museum gift stores

v      Gymnasiums (i.e. YMCA)

v      Rental facilities (i.e. Boy Scouts campgrounds)

v      Packaging/Assembly services (i.e. work-service sites for people with intellectual disabilities)

Many of these ventures are as close to the core mission of these organizations as any other part of their work. But over the past couple of years, we have seen the emergence of ventures that were more directly aimed at generating profits and less and impacting mission.

For example, a youth development organization owning a Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop. A pet shelter owning a consignment shop. A theater troupe operating a hair salon (I mean, that could happen, right?).

What is the ideal blend of “margin and mission”? When can innovation lead towards mission creep in the name of profits?

Here is an approach that I recommend adopting when considering what earned income activities to pursue:

1. Create an “asset map” that charts all of the areas of expertise that are a part of your organization, as well as the tangible assets that you own (i.e. real estate)
2. Build a “relationship map” that documents all of the connections that you have in the community that could be naturally/easily leveraged into a business relationship (i.e. your natural customers)
3. Cross the two of these maps to see which of your assets are currently being purchased by your relationships
4. Explore the opportunities that present themselves through this process, and determine if there are any that naturally jump out; if so, attempt to calculate the possible value of a venture aimed at monetizing that relationship.
5. Similarly, document all of the additional needs within your relationship map. See if there are any untapped opportunities to capitalize on multiple relationships at once (i.e. if you have a relationship with several dozen churches, a floral business might be a good venture to explore… particularly if you are The Arboretum)
6. Analyze the “highest yield” opportunities that emerge from this process to determine the 3 – 4 that make the most sense for your nonprofit.

The last of these if going to be different for each organization.

For some, the one that makes the most sense will be the most profitable. For others, the most mission-related. For others, a hybrid.

What formula do you think applies to your organization? 

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