 Welcome to the non-profit show. We are so glad you're here starting your week with us. We're really excited to have Heather Nelson joining us today. Heather serves as president and lead consultant at Bridge Raise. She's going to talk to us about sharing inside successful corporate sponsorship tricks, techniques, all kinds of good things. Stay with us because she has a lot to share and she also let us know with a little teaser that it might not be what we expect. I cannot wait, Heather, to hear what curveballs and spicy things you have to say with us. And for those of you that haven't met us, we are Julia and Jarrett. Julia Patrick is here, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I'm Jarrett Ransom, your non-profit nerd and CEO of the Raven Group. We are so very honored to have the ongoing support from our amazing presenting sponsors that allow us these spicy conversations. So thank you to our friends over at Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, non-profit thought leader, Better Using Academy at National University, staffing boutique, non-profit nerd and non-profit tech talk. These companies allow us, as I said, these opportunities unscripted to really dive into the subject matters of these experts. So thank you so very much. And if you missed any of these conversations that I keep alluding to, you can find them. Thank you, Vanna White, on your app. So download the app. We also have streaming broadcasts as well as podcasts. So there's many places you can find all of these 800 plus episodes. So please do check us out. And Heather, we are so glad to have you here again. For those of you watching and listening, Heather Nelson joins us. Again, she's president and lead consultant at BridgeRays. Welcome to you. Hi, thanks so much for having me and how fun to be having this conversation where I see like sponsor logos behind your head and everybody's thinking. Right. What do those sponsors get? What do they want? And so, yeah, thanks so much for having me today. Well, absolutely. Tell us a little bit and start us off by telling us a little bit about yourself and then a little bit about BridgeRays and what you do in the sector. Well, I'll start by saying I'm a little bit jealous that this is your long weekend because I'm from Canada. This was not a long weekend in Canada. So I worked all day yesterday while you were lounging about. So, yes, I'm, as you said, I specialize in corporate fundraising. I've been in the nonprofit sector my whole career, which is, you know, adding up now at the stage, despite how young I know I look, but the 25 plus years in the nonprofit sector, the last seven years, I've owned my own business, working with nonprofits at raising more money from companies. And we try to do it in a way that the value is aligned, relationship based. We want the nonprofit and the company to feel really good about it. And let me try to have some fun while we're making it happen as well. You have to have fun. We're all about fun as well. Well, I think you have to be, you know, I hate to use this word, but almost joyful when you're tackling tough topics, you know? I mean, it gets to be really heavy. I know Jarrett and I, I mean, there are times when we end our show and we're just like, oh my God, that person we just had on. They're doing the work of the angels. And, you know, it's really humbling and really intense. So a big part of this is the money and is the ability to create a partnership. And so let's get right to it, Heather, and ask you about the connection between marketing and corporate sponsors. What does this look like to you? And I think maybe you're going to say something that we haven't heard before. Well, I don't know if I'm going to say something I haven't heard before, but I'm going to talk about a few different things. I think in the olden times, a few years ago, corporate sponsorship was exclusively a very transactional thing, very, very based on numbers, right? So we don't want to lose sight of that. Part of corporate sponsorship is delivering value to the business. And most often that had some kind of marketing element, you know, speaking to the audience they wanted to speak to, engaging their customers, engaging people with their brand, their messaging, things like that, right? And being able to track that. And so as part of a part of the partnership, there was this expectation that the nonprofit was going to help with that. Right. Fast forward to now. And I'm not going to say that's not a part of it. There still is that part, but we're seeing more and more companies that are purpose led and therefore the benefit may be about the impact that they jointly want to have in the world, right? We're also seeing the importance on employee engagement and how important corporate partnerships can be in keeping your employees and getting new employees. And so now we see corporate sponsorships that can be built entirely on the employee as the audience, right? And so that leaks away from marketing. So there's still marketing in and many or in some partnerships, but we're seeing more corporate sponsorships that are not relying exclusively on that. And for my money, that's really, really good news for most nonprofits. Yeah. You know, I remember going back to the with them, right? And the with them is what's in it for me? And how do we answer that for our corporate sponsors? And I just have to say, right? Like, should we be answering it for them? Or should we really be asking them? What is it that they desire? Right? Because I can imagine, Heather, there's probably some that that are different, you know, because every nonprofit is different and every corporation is a little different. But absolutely. And I love that you said that because one of the things actually in our pre-call, you mentioned, you know, building a pitch deck. And I was like, yeah, you know, we do do that at Bridge Rays. That's part of the puzzle. But I love it when I hear, you know, I built the list of questions I wanted to ask, right? Like, let's start there. Let's start with the conversation. Let's start with questions. That doesn't mean you don't need to know what you have to offer, whether it's in marketing or an employee engagement or, you know, in gala tickets, but make sure that you know what those things are. But then, yeah, start with the question. Like, what are they looking for? Because they could be looking for an impact metric that your organization is measuring every day because it's the most important thing to you. And wouldn't it save you a lot of time if you could offer that up instead of all these things that really aren't your zone of genius? So, yeah, asking. So important. Yeah, really, really important. Well, what about the other thing I hear is, you know, we ask someone all too often, right? We have asked them so many times this year. And I really like to ask, you know, like, how would you like to partner with us throughout the year? So that takes takes us to how corporations viewing a long term sponsorship. But I'm going to say partnership. Right. Right. Right. I agree. Yeah. Well, it's funny that you say there's two things in there that I really heard that I want to want to sort of build off of. One is I think one of the things with sponsorship is, you know, we often hang it or, you know, build it around an event, right? Or an activity. And so that kind of makes it seem like it happens at one moment in time. And then it's not year round. God, right? It's gone. But for most of us who are running those those kind of events, it's like, you know, we're starting now for next year, for sure. And sometimes even more than a year ahead. So I'm always like, how can you right from the start set it up as a year round activity, even if there is what I call the culminating event like the conference, the gala, the run is the culminating event. But there could be activities that your corporate sponsor is a part of that happen all year long. So that's a question of positioning, right? Because we know there's stuff happening all year long. So can you communicate with them about it all year long? Could you put breadcrumbs of activity in other parts of the year to make it a year round thing? So that's number one. And then number two, how did they view long term sponsorship? I'm not going to speak for them. Companies view it differently. I would say many companies, if there is no good reason for them to sponsor you for more than one year in a row, they're not going to. However, what I see all the time is Cherry saying, oh, I wish I had multi year sponsorships. And then I'm then I asked them, OK, well, how is your how is your pitch set up? Do you explain why three years make sense? What's the goal at the end of three years? What's the joint brand building that's going to happen? Like if you don't set it up to make business sense for them to do multi year, why would they commit to multi year? So I think how they view it is if it makes good business sense, then they're going to do it. And if you're building an awesome product with them or project or impact or customer experience, then you have a great case for a multi year partnership or sponsorship, right? So how do you answer the question about or the concern about, well, we don't know what our budget will be. So we can only do one year. I mean, I hear that a lot. I was working with a corporation last week and they they were told that their philanthropic dollars were going to be decreased by 15 percent, you know, which not surprising in the economic changes that are going on. How do we navigate this? Because is it kind of a, you know, a friendly handshake that we're going to go through and it'll be revised or what does that look like? Yeah, well, I think that there's a few things. First of all, I'm always, you know, if you're in the philanthropic bucket, then you're more likely to hear that than if you're in the marketing budget or the employee bucket. So I always do try to suggest like, make sure you do know where you are because it will make a difference in that conversation. And then the question really becomes, yeah, like, how important is it for you to have the multi year agreement? If it's really important, then I would say, you know, what's the base we could agree to? And then we can add on on an annual basis some of the extras. So sometimes when it's event in event, there might be a marketing budget for amplifying the message, and that might be a place that's fairly variable, where other things are less variable. So you might say, you know, here's the partnership. And at the beginning of the year, let's talk about some of the bonus marketing pieces we could put in place. And so you have that multi year stability with the opportunity for extra. So something like that might be might be what could work. But you know what, Julia? In the end, there's this part of it that is the conversation. And if you build a good relationship with the company, then you can decide with them, is it worth really pushing for the three year or is that going to hurt us? You know, how important is it to us on our side there on their side and come up with the right answer for for this particular partnership? And that's what I guess that's my recommendation is really listening to what they have to say. Sure. What do you what have you seen? Well, I love so much that you come at this from the relationship standpoint, you know, because I fully agree that for corporate sponsors, for individual donors, like it really is about building a relationship and how the donor, be it an individual or a corporation, wants to see their impact of a dollar, right? Like, where is it that they're going? But I want to get into the value add. Like, what are you hearing is the value add that some of these corporations want? And I know you're not going to speak for them. But if you can, what are things that you've heard? Yeah, well, I'm going to go back to something I mentioned a bit earlier, which is the employee piece. I think this is incredibly critical. So, you know, whether it's everything from what we're now hearing the term skill based volunteerism, where companies are trying to get their leaders to have different kinds of training and experience in real life role playing, you know, so overseeing committees, participating in committees, like that kind of thing. So the opportunity to give those kinds of experience as well as, you know, participating in a more active way on the day if it's volunteers at the run or, you know, we have a mentorship program with one of my clients where the employees get to mentor young people, you know. So thinking about how you can gauge employees. Super, super important. It's a key value add for sure. Another one that I often fall back on, and this is really the relationship piece again, Jared, is make it easy to be your partner. You know what? All the time, I'm like, you know what? If I'm going to have a call with one nonprofit as a company and it's a really enjoyable conversation and they make it easy. They, you know, they send me the story that I want. They, you know, they give me the information I've asked for. They tell me when they will give it to me. The meeting is tight, you know. That's who I want to hang out with. That's who I want to partner with again. If you make it super complicated and everything is difficult. That's not it. So value add is like a frictionless relationship. How can you lower the the the tension, the friction, the challenge of being your partner? And one of the like secret tips I always want to give clients about this is simplify your organization's mission and the impact as much as you can. OK, because, you know, this overload of like they need to know every nuance of your programming and all the complexity of your organization is like their brains are going to hurt, right? So instead, can we simplify that so that the company can feel like they're making an impact and they understand what they're making an impact in and then go from there. We don't have to give them everything in the kitchen sink. But the things that I really thought about as you were talking about this, Heather, you know, for me where I have seen the most successful corporate partnerships and sponsorships have been with those corporations that you talk to literally throughout the year. So you're not only talking to them because your event is coming up because you have something to sell them. You're talking to them because they are genuinely a partner with you in this space. And that's I think where I've seen the most success, you know. And and I hear you as you talk about the long term relationship like that's that is a relationship within a partnership. The value add. If you're talking to them multiple times throughout the year, you are gathering so much information. That's it. I love you say that you said that we're so, so aligned on this. Like one of the things that we're always talking to our clients about is like, what are all the touch points in the like between that pitch moment and the fulfillment, you know. And it's so true that if you're talking to them along the way, then it's it also like sort of de-escalates any pressure on the actual ask moment, which I know some people are really, you know, always thinking about when you ask for the money. And I'm always like, you know, and if I've been talking to them all year long, asking for the money is just part of the flow and they're expecting it and they're putting in their budget. They may even say, hey, this is what we're planning for the budget this year for you. Like you're having those conversations and you're also, you know, there's always with corporations, I think this is more true than any other, but I don't talk to individuals. So who knows? You can tell me. But if you're talking to them throughout the year, you'll find other ways to augment your partnership. Right. That's where, you know, we say, how do you get out of the philanthropy budget? You talk to them because then you're going to find out about the summer event that could be built around an employee engagement opportunity. That's where you're going to hear about, hey, we're struggling to recruit employees, you know, and you can talk about, OK, what could we do? Is it like a little LinkedIn campaign with you about what it's like to work in your company? Could we help you out with that? You know, you hear those little ways that you can be an even better partner in those moments, in those in between conversations, right? I love that because that is not on a sponsorship deck, right? Like that comes genuinely in conversation. Right. That's it. It's a mindset. And I think it's actually more of a partnership mindset as opposed to that sponsorship, you know, get the check move on versus, OK, we really want to be working together towards a common goal. And sometimes our goals shift, and sometimes they're a little different, but yet they can really be merged. And I think that is what makes for a lot of magic. And I think to your point, Heather, long term, I loved what you said, you know, if it's a joy and a point of pride to be involved with an organization, their leadership and their mission and their impact, it's a lot easier to come to the table with more resources. Whatever those resources might look like, right? That's it. It might be a new board member. It might be, you know, a matching gift. It might be an actual physical manifestation of enhancing your property or your program. I mean, you know. Well, that's the cool thing about corporate sponsorship is, I mean, I never want to have one that doesn't have money between us. Yeah, yeah. However, there is often value and kind opportunities. There's other, you know, other things that that inevitably they can bring to the table. And you will mostly hear about those in different conversations, sometimes very intentional ones, but sometimes ones that you have when you're at a conference or an event, one of the like secret sauce, as I always say, about finding prospects is going where they are, right? And, you know, going to the conference that they're at, even if that is not like educationally valuable for you, necessarily going to those things because then you can meet them in person and you get to know what's going on with them. Then again, like any conversation, pitch deck proposal is going to be so much better informed because you're seeing them in action, you're meeting people in person. And so, yeah, that's another like connecting relationship to sponsorship and getting away from this very, we have this many bodies, this many eyeballs, this many social media posts, it adds up to this. That to me is just such a basic way and frankly, not very satisfying to just have that. If you have that, I mean, you may need that, but that can be just a little part of a big, you know, mosaic of what's going on. Yeah, I agree. Let me ask, I'm sorry, go ahead, Jer. No, I was going to say, let's talk about exclusivity. And I think that's probably where you were going to, Julia, you know, is should we really consider having like a non-compete, you know, that exclusive where we can have only one, you know, company in this arena partnering with us throughout the year or even at a single event? Where do you see when it comes to exclusives? Yeah, you know, it's a tough question because I think that there is times where it makes sense and there's times where it doesn't. And let's go back to, I think it comes down to intentionality and the situation. We didn't get into my specific background, but I was at Food Banks Canada for eight years, which is similar to Feeding America and, you know, a place where clearly exclusivity would not work, right? We needed all the food retailers, all the food companies to get behind hunger in our country, right? Like this was not going to be solved by an exclusivity clause. Right. This was an important place for me to like sharpen my teeth on this because basically what had to happen was I really had to figure out how to explain the importance of us all being in this together. I really leaned into transparency. So we had very clear rules around how much money and what kind of benefits were associated with that so that we could look each company in the face and say, you know, if you're at this level, you're being treated the same as this other company that's your competitor at this level. But then we also found ways to give them their moment in the sun, right? So I do think that it is reasonable to expect as a business that you're not always going to be next to your competitor. So how could we work that out? And that may be in a specific program area that they had exclusivity or with some messaging. We had certain times of the year that we would give certain companies exclusivity around, you know, their big food drive in our case. So I think that that, you know, is a model that can work. I also think that back to our ask the question, I have seen so many times an exclusivity clause in a contract and the moment I said, you know what, we're not comfortable with that. They were like, oh yeah, yeah, and they took it out. And I'm always like, you know, how many organizations are just not like standing in the power that they can ask that question and they're just signing. So like always ask, is this really critical to you? If it is, is it need to be as broad? Is there really one company you're worried about? Like ask a few of those questions cause you might be able to skinny that baby up so that it's not such a big deal. Right. I love that so much, especially coming from the food banking world where you're like, look, this is not going to be solved by one food retailer. Like we need all the people, the masses to come together. And I feel like many of us, you know, our critical missions are the same. We cannot eradicate homelessness with one company. No, no. No, we can't. And it's an interesting thing. And I also think too sometimes that there's an exclusionary piece of that. You know, if you're talking about financial institutions and you have, you know, the top five banks, the sixth one is going to want to be on there, right? You know, they're not going to want to be the apparent outsider to this. And so I think at some point, that can work in your favor. But what I do like that you said, Heather, which is I think it goes back to this year round connectivity is to say, what are we going to do that's going to be special for you? That's going to be a point out to you, you know, law firm C or whatever, so that you get your moment, you know, in the sun, so to speak. And I think that's really a smart way to go. Really smart. And it's much easier to do as soon as you get away from only recognizing the company at the culminating event where likely everybody is going to be there, right? Like that's the whole point of the event is we're all there together. So what's the separate thing that gives them something special and then that does, of course, allow you to start talking about your own partnerships with this key moment in the middle, right? Right, and I think too, we need to value ourselves in the nonprofit sector that we need to be able to say, look, it's prestigious for this corporate partner to be associated with us. You know, for them to have our logo on their things with their teams, with their leadership, when they are reporting out to their shareholders about what they're doing to give back or their impact, we forget that, I think a lot of times, you know? And so I think this is one of those things we need to be prepared, we need to have B-roll, we need to have our logos good to go, you know, things of that nature so that these corporate partners can be reporting back out on where they're spending their money because they're gonna be called to task two. Yeah, now you're so right. And I mean, I think one of the most common ways that a company can really have their moment in the sun is using your nonprofit's brand in their stuff, right? And that's a value to them. And I think, you know, we, many nonprofits have almost what's called a licensing fee. Like this is how much it costs for you to take my logo, perhaps my spokesperson and put them in your campaign, which you're gonna pay to execute, by the way, right? Like the nonprofit is not paying for it. But that association is of value. And we often lose that in the translation or smaller organizations think they can't do that. But if you are in a community, you know, I live in a small town and you can do a cause campaign that's the size of the town if that's where you're delivering your services, right? And so it looks different, obviously for a big national organization than it does for local organization, but that idea of what can they do with your logo, your credibility, your, you know, your halo, I think it's the old school way of talking about it. Yeah, like how can that work? And then also the don't lose sight of the importance of the impact that you have and them owning that in their community investment priorities for their, many companies are putting ESG environment and social goals in their companies. And how are they gonna make those happen with their nonprofit partnerships, right? Absolutely. Heather, you've been a fabulous guest and I really enjoyed the current environment with which you've shared your knowledge and how we can have better relationships and partnerships. I mean, I think, Jarrett, you hit it right when you said let's stop calling them a sponsorship and calling it a partnership. Heather Nelson, President and Lead Consultant of BridgeRace. Check out bridgerace.com. It's a great site and they have a lot of really interesting information on it about what they do and how to do it, whether you're working with them or not. Just a really, I think, modern holistic approach to relationships that really make our system and the nonprofit sector across the globe work. So really great information. Heather, thank you so much. Again, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I've been joined by my nonprofit nerd and your nonprofit nerd, the nonprofit nerd, Jarrett R. Ransom. Hey, Ms. Jarrett, I heard a rumor that you're gonna be at the beach on Friday. What the hell? I wish I was gonna be at the beach. I will be in San Diego, probably not too far from the beach, but you're just presenting live. So we will have a live broadcast at the Cultivate Conference June 1 in San Diego, California. And then I have a presentation that same day. And then also Friday, our Friday will be broadcasting live as well. It's gonna be a lot of fun if you are in the San Diego, greater San Diego area. Make sure that, yeah, come join us and meet Jarrett Ransom. I'll give you the secret insider tip. Jarrett's really tall. You say that, Julia, but I'm not in heels anymore, so I'm not tall as I used to be. But you know what? I'm shrinking and you're getting taller. And I'm just like, I'm getting wider, you're getting taller. I don't know what's going on here, but it's happening. But anyway, yeah, check out our friends at Fundraising Academy. You'll get to meet so many of the people that we get to work with, but that we work with them digitally, but to see them in person, it's gonna be a lot of fun. Again, we wanna thank all of our generous sponsors who allow us to do this daily talk show to things like going to cultivate. So they include Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, nonprofit thought leader, Fundraising Academy at National University, Staffing Boutique, non-profit nerd, and non-profit tech talk. And I think we're gonna be adding a new sponsor for June 1st, so check that out. That's gonna be a lot of fun. And until then, we like to end every episode with our mantra. And Heather, we're gonna share this with you because I think you're right in that spirit of it. We always like to end every episode with these words. And that is to stay well, so you can do well. Thank you so much, ladies. This has been a great start to my week.