A sponsorship pays for one program. A partnership can change what your organization is able to do next year.

Dan Drucker spent more than 35 years in corporate B2B sales and marketing, the last twenty or so at Canon, running sales and marketing for the US. He retired at the start of 2024 and founded Philanthropy Fuel, where he helps nonprofits build corporate partnerships. He writes The Fuel Tank, a free weekly newsletter. He volunteers at an animal shelter, and he and his wife are birders.

Dan tells the story of a conversation he had with the head of employee volunteerism at Goldman Sachs. He was asking her about her work when it occurred to him to ask whether the bank's financial experts ran financial literacy workshops in underfunded communities. They did. It's one of the biggest things they do. He was already working with a hospital system in an underfunded community near him. He introduced the two. That match existed before the call; nobody had asked the question.

If the only thing you've ever asked a business for is a check, this conversation is about everything else you could be asking for.

In this episode

• Why a sponsorship keeps an organization living paycheck to paycheck, and what a partnership does instead
• The translation test: the two-word question that turns your impact into something a business can use
• Skills-based volunteering, and why twenty scientists beat twenty extra hands on a volunteer day

A few ideas to apply at your nonprofit

• Take one line from your last appeal and ask "so what?" until it describes something a business gets. "We planted 10,000 trees" becomes a hands-on volunteer experience their employees will ask about.
• Write down every business you already know: current sponsors, vendors, volunteers' employers, board connections, recurring donors. Those calls are warm. Start there before you research anyone new.
• Look past the CSR officer. Employee engagement, HR, marketing, and volunteer services all have a reason to say yes, and they're easier to reach.

Resources Mentioned

Connect with Dan

• Philanthropy Fuel: https://www.philanthropyfuel.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/druckerdan/
• The Fuel Tank, his free weekly newsletter, comes out every Sunday. Sign up from his website or LinkedIn.

Connect with Sarah

• Nonprofit411: https://nonprofit411.org
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nonprofit411
• The Generosity Roadmap, a free class: https://nonprofit411.org/generosity_map

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 01:03 Photography, Birding, and Paying Attention
• 03:31 Thirty-Five Years on the Corporate Side
• 04:57 Two Sides That Don't Speak the Same Language
• 07:13 Start by Looking Inward
• 11:59 The Translation Test
• 16:07 Your Sponsors Are Your First Stop
• 20:04 Reaching Beyond Your Region
• 22:17 Sponsorship or Partnership
• 25:08 Skills-Based Volunteering
• 30:15 Joint Research With Health and Education
• 31:42 Where to Start Today