Good Works!: Marketing and Corporate Initiatives that Build a Better World...and the Bottom Line

Chapter 15

A Marketing Approach to Winning Corporate Funding and Support for Social Initiatives: Ten Recommendations

If substantial financial resources are to be raised and sustained over a long period of time, it's essential that supportive partners, especially large corporate partners, get as well as give. To find the intersection of public interest and private interest that will work for your partners, begin by sitting down with them to learn about their needs before telling them about yours. What are their marketing and sales challenges? What specific public relations messages do they hope to convey? Who are their principal competitors and on what playing fields are they competing? How do they hope this partnership will be viewed by their employee workforce? Then go back and brainstorm so that you can return to the table with creative ideas for vehicles that will both raise money for and increase awareness of your cause, but will also meet the business need of your partner.¹

—Bill Shore Founder and CEO of Share Our Strength

We think Bill Shore's advice is right on, as it reflects a customer-oriented approach to the exchange process, one that has the best chance for securing corporate support for social initiatives. In fact, a synthesis of recommendations presented in this chapter is reminiscent of steps traditionally used in developing a marketing plan: a process that finds the best fit between an organization's mission, objectives, and capabilities and the needs and wants ...