Every nonprofit understands that fundraising events like auctions and fun runs are vital to their success. While a large portion of nonprofit funding stems from these events, they aren’t the only source of income available.
Video
Top Nonprofit Public Relations agency, The Blake Agency, shares a video below on Effective Public Relations Strategies for your nonprofit
Corporate sponsorships provide a nonprofit with the finances or media visibility it needs to reach the next level. It allows them to take more substantial projects. Organize larger events. And reach broader audiences.
However, careful planning is required to form these partnerships in the first place. A for-profit business needs to see some benefit in it for them and it’s up to each nonprofit to create that benefit for themselves. One of the best methods for obtaining a lasting, corporate sponsorship is to set your nonprofit up with an effective public relations strategy.
What is Public Relations?
Public relations is the art of shaping how an entity is perceived by a group. This is primarily done by targeting an audience through their trust in an influential third-party. If an influencer or celebrity begins talking about a nonprofit in a positive light, it’s likely that their audience will form a similar opinion.
Unlike traditional marketing, this positive view isn’t purchased. PR works through unpaid methods that give it a level of trustworthiness that paid advertising can’t match.
Even after catching the eyes of these third parties, you still need to powerfully introduce your nonprofit’s message. It needs to be impactful enough that the third-party willingly passes it along to their audience.
The Blake Agency is among the best in North America at achieving this. With case studies and reviews from across the country, we have a proven record of turning small-scale nonprofits into community juggernauts. In this article, you’ll learn how strong PR practices can earn your Atlanta nonprofit a corporate sponsorship.
How Solid PR Practices Lead to Sponsorships
To form a partnership with a for-profit organization, you need an enticing asset as bait. For most nonprofits, this is access to a new audience or alignment with a charitable message.
Tapping into a fresh audience is valuable to any business. Many people inherently hold a high degree of trust in nonprofits. A for-profit business is looking to use that trust to market their services more effectively. This means that if your nonprofit doesn’t have a substantial enough audience base, then a corporate sponsorship will remain out of reach.
For nonprofits with limited budgets, building up a meaningful following with traditional marketing isn’t feasible. Instead, PR strategies offer a relatively low-cost route to increase your public reach and create an audience that for-profit organizations will be interested in.
Additionally, corporations want to link themselves with charitable causes that make them appear sympathetic or forward thinking. This only works if your nonprofit organization is strongly associated with such a message.
It’s not enough just to have your nonprofit’s name known by a large audience. That audience needs to instantly connect your nonprofit with a good cause. If not, then a partnership with your nonprofit won’t be as appealing to a corporation looking to boost its reputation. Public relations crafts this connection between your nonprofit and its cause through creative and repeated storytelling.
Looking for Nonprofit Sponsorship in Atlanta
In the past decade, due to affordable office rent and cost of living, many companies have moved their headquarters to Atlanta. Additionally, the city was ranked among the top 20 areas to create a start-up.
This means that there are plenty of local businesses, big and small, to choose from when searching for corporate sponsorship. With enough research, finding one that shares an audience and brand message with your nonprofit shouldn’t be too difficult.
You can also hunt for larger game and send proposals to international companies. The titans in Atlanta, Georgia include:
• The Coca-Cola Foundation Inc.
• The UPS Foundation
• Georgia Power Foundation Inc.
• The Aflac Foundation Inc.
Knowing the breakdown of businesses in Atlanta before creating concrete plans is a huge boon in creating an effective PR strategy. This knowledge gives you insight into what facts to highlight about your nonprofit and which demographics are the most important to reach.
Conclusion
Nonprofits looking to expand their influence will eventually need to find corporate sponsorships. Funding city-wide events or getting proper media coverage is difficult to do on donations alone.
However, you need to set your nonprofit up with the proper conditions and cultivate a reputation that attracts the right sponsorships.
This is especially true for cities like Atlanta which has a large population of young people known to be morally conscientious buyers. There are countless nonprofits to compete with and if you want the best results, then a professional PR firm like The Blake Agency is a necessity.
If you want to know how to make your nonprofit stand out to corporations, then contact us for a consultation.
