MODERATOR: Alexis Cooke, Senior Consultant, Alford Group
SPEAKERS: Dan Kowitz, Founder & CEO, JSB Partnership Consultants; Strategy Partner, Alford Group
Nancy Wright, Chief Executive Officer, Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana
Slide Deck: Corporate Partnerships Webinar_Alford Group
Service One-Pager: OnePager: CorporatePartnerships
By Brenda B. Asare, President and CEO, Alford Group
Featuring:
Liz Thompson, President and Office Director, Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education (The CAFE)
Don Thompson, CEO and Founder, Cleveland Avenue, LLC
With the current events of the past five months, the world is learning how to overcome the discomfort of talking about race and are having some real courageous conversations on how we can move forward together to create lasting change for people of color. This change will create a ripple effect where others who have been marginalized will benefit and increase their ability to thrive as well – no one is left behind.
By Alexis Cooke, Consultant, Alford Group
On Wednesday, June 17, Alford Group hosted a panel of national experts and funders to discuss Giving USA’s Annual Report on Philanthropy in 2019 in light of current realities, new opportunities and our future as non-profit staff, funders and philanthropists. The full discussion, along with Alford Group’s Giving USA report, may be found here.
As Brenda Asare, Alford Group’s President and CEO, noted as she opened the panel discussion, we all had high hopes for 2020 – momentum within the sector was strong and anticipated to continue at the close of 2019 and through 2020. Of course, no one knew what was coming nor how incredibly important that cushion would be to the survival of many nonprofits. As leaders representing funders and philanthropists across the country, Laura, Marguerite, Steve and Beth offered critical insights into philanthropy today and provided some hope as Brenda said “we must look up and ahead, as that is where we are all going.”
Continue reading “Giving USA: The Next Normal and a New Age of Philanthropy”
By Mary Kaufman-Cranney, CFRE, Vice President
I recently facilitated a panel of development professionals at the statewide Arizona AFP Conference in Flagstaff to discuss the ins and outs of preparing for and launching a major campaign. The session reinforced best practices along with the creativity and flexibility needed to adapt to the bumps in the road that come with any campaign.
Between the panelists and myself, we brought about a dozen or two campaign experiences, a half billion dollars raised and more than a few stories of how campaigns truly bring out magical moments – from motivated donors and serendipity occurrences, to inspired board engagement and giving.
What is a major campaign?As we got going, the panelists were nodding their heads as I got us all on board with the definition of a major campaign.
Definition of a Major Campaign:
A carefully organized, intensive fundraising effort in a specific amount of time designed to secure extraordinary gifts for specific purpose(s) that propel the organization to a whole new level of achieving its mission & reaching its vision Continue reading “How to Prepare for a Major Campaign: Insights from expert fundraisers”
The secret to a successful corporate/social sector partnership is for each partner to be simultaneously self-centered and other-focused. In this video post, Diane Knoepke talks about the three ways we are failing to live up to what we know about what makes these partnerships work.
If you’re working in the social sector, you’ve probably said – or at least heard – things like this in discussions of the dynamics between grantmakers and grantseekers:
“We want this to be valuable for both sides of the equation.”
“I’ve sat on both sides of the table.”
“We need to understand how things work on the other side.”
Perhaps this “both sides” idea is a misnomer. At least that is what I walked away thinking after moderating two dynamic panels of funders and their nonprofit partners at Friday’s “Straight Talk: Unpacking the Power Dynamic between Grantseekers and Grantmakers” event, hosted by Chicago Women in Philanthropy. When we think of partners in funding relationships as the “asker” and the “asked,” we are missing a lot of dimensions to the power dynamics present in these relationships. Continue reading “Break on Through to the Other Sides: Unpacking Power Dynamics Between Funders and Funded”
By Diane Knoepke, Vice President, Alford Group
Over just the past few months, we have been the beneficiaries of an absolute embarrassment of riches in terms of high-powered convenings and insight-filled reports related to corporate/social sector collaboration and investment. I dare say we are seeing an unprecedented level of research and conversation about the role of companies in driving social sector outcomes and vice versa. While digesting it all can feel like sipping from a firehose, I’m finding that so many of my partnership conversations right now are coming back to three themes, all of which are supported and driven by these great insights coming from all corners of the corporate social innovation and philanthropic worlds.
#1 Heightened consumer expectations, and how companies are responding
Sixty percent (60%) of Americans now expect companies to play a greater role in society, particularly given the new administration. Tina-Marie Adams, Midwest Managing Director of APCO Worldwide, shared this data point at last month’s Social Innovation Summit, drawn from research her firm had recently completed. This is further borne out by data from Cone Communications’ 2017 CSR Study, which found that “millennials are putting their faith in companies to ignite change,” with 71% of millennials hopeful that business will take the lead (compared to U.S. average of 63%). Continue reading “Three Corporate/Social Sector Partnership Conversations I’m Having Right Now”
By Diane Knoepke, Vice President, Alford Group Read Diane’s Bio
Almost every company is a good fit for at least a handful of nonprofits, and every company is a bad fit for quite a few nonprofits. The inverse is also true: almost every nonprofit is a good fit for at least a handful of businesses, and every nonprofit is a bad fit for quite a few companies.
With increasingly discerning audiences, a volatile political climate, blurred lines that used to seem bright, and the unprecedented speed of change and information, what must nonprofits and companies do to successfully partner with one another?
How to fortify partnerships against the elements
Any partnership without a little bit of risk is also likely a partnership without any value or interest. Of course, we all know there are good risks and bad risks. Below you will find ways to make sure the risks you take are planned and smart and likely to have great returns. Here are the five must-haves for a successful corporate-nonprofit partnership: Continue reading “Corporate-nonprofit partnerships in the land of impossible expectations”
Prospect research can be a complex subject, but it’s vital to growing and developing your nonprofit’s donor base.
With over $373 billion donated last year, giving is on the rise, which means that prospect research is more important than ever for capitalizing on your donors’ generosity and building strong relationships with them.
In this guide, we’ll cover all of the basics, from the definition down to the nitty-gritty details of how prospect research can work for you!
Specifically, we’ll answer these questions:
Let’s get started!
Prospect research is the process of learning more about a specific donor or a group of donors so that your nonprofit can cultivate and manage them more effectively. Continue reading “Prospect Research: The Breakthrough Guide to the Basics”
Every day the news carries another story about the work in Washington, DC to negotiate a deal on the debt limit and serious debt reduction activities. The issues are familiar – potential spending reductions and potential tax increases. One side will not budge from its position of no new taxes – and the other will not budge on its position of achieving results with new taxes and limited spending reductions. We know they need to collaborate to solve this – yet they are providing a good example of what collaboration is not. Over the next few weeks we will discover if they do learn the meaning of the word.
In the meantime, in our own communities, we have the ability to collaborate every day – and yet in the nonprofit world I tend to see more competition than collaboration. How can we set an example to work with other nonprofit organizations that have similar missions, values, and services? Is there a chance to provide improved services to the community utilizing fewer resources and thus improving efficiencies? Do organizations ever attempt to discover the answer to these questions?
Continue reading “Collaboration is Easy to Discuss and Difficult to Do”