How to make a first contact with corporate donors?

Many-a-times, nonprofits need to make a lot of efforts to reach out to a corporate, to make them listen to what they have to ask for, and to tell them why they stand out by the good work they do.

Being able to schedule a meeting with them is a good indication for the potential collaborations or seeking corporate funding or sponsorship for your organization.

So here are a few tips to help you prepare for the face-to-face meeting.

Appointments

Your first meeting with a corporate can make you nervous. Don’t worry and make sure you go step-by-step. Whether it is a pre-ask meeting or one that is regarding corporate volunteers, it is surely an opportunity for your non-profit to get various resources like funds, volunteers, partnerships, etc.

Preparation for the meeting

Be ready with your homework before the meeting. You would want to make sure you make the most of it. So, make sure you have done your homework before this one.

Be ready with all the things you would like to carry with you, like a PowerPoint presentation about your organization, your work, your cause and what support you are seeking. 

Do your research

You may want to go for the meeting with high possibility of getting a donation or corporate gift, or other resources. For making sure you achieve this, you would need to understand the company in question.

A little bit of research about the company, previous and current social projects it has implemented, if any, can tell you a lot about the corporate. All this will help you in understanding the company and thus will enable you to make your proposition into a business case for them. This can be a win-win situation for both sides.

Keep it simple

Keep the first meeting simple. You do not need to carry bulky documentation, or your reports, audit, etc. to the first meeting unless asked to. Aim to utilize the opportunity of a first meeting to discuss, brainstorm, explore areas of collaboration, understand each other, to arrive at a conclusion towards contributing for a cause together.

Although you need to display what your organization does, impact areas and success stories, keep it light and carry a PowerPoint presentation to explain about these.

Communicate your impact

Most of the corporate donors do not like to risk their funds, reputation, and time, so most of them like to go for a known, reputed and trusted organization to support and to undertake social projects. You need to communicate how is your nonprofit different, what is it that you do and how good you are at it.

Show numbers (data, evaluation reports, and successes), success stories, narrations, even videos with a ‘master’ presentation about the organization and the programmes. Before asking for donations, you need to communicate why the corporate must be interested in your cause. 

Take the first small step, aim for the giant leap

There’s a funny expression in fundraising, which goes like this: If you ask for money, you get advice, and vice versa, i.e. if you ask for advice, you get money. Make sure you do not come across as just another charity asking for a usual donation, considering the corporate as ‘just another donor’.

Discussions, brainstorming, analyzing the needs of the community will help you come to a conclusion about how you as a team can work together to bridge the gaps.

Source URL: https://www2.fundsforngos.org/featured/make-first-contact-corporate-donors/