EP 80: Corporate Fundraising Secrets with Heather Nelson of BridgeRaise

Positioning review: No adjustments needed. All content reflects the guest's firsthand consulting experience in corporate fundraising partnerships. Advice is naturally observational and experiential, shared from the guest's professional perspective.

Jeff: Welcome to Elevate Your Event, your favorite podcast for transforming fundraising events. Join us weekly for expert tips and creative ideas to make your next event a standout success. On today's episode of Elevate Your Event, we're joined by Heather Nelson, president of BridgeRaise, as she unpacks the secrets to successful corporate fundraising. From building lasting partnerships with aligned values to crafting sponsorship packages that truly resonate, Heather shares expert tips to take your nonprofit's fundraising to the next level. Let's jump in.

Jeff: Welcome back to the Elevate Your Event podcast, where we talk about all the various ways you can make your next fundraising event better or raise more money for your organization. So we have a very special guest today. We've got Heather Nelson. She's the president and lead consultant for BridgeRaise. So Heather, go ahead, introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about you and kind of how you got into this crazy fundraising world.

Heather: I'd be happy to. And you know what? I think I'm one of the only people in the world who very actively pursued getting into the fundraising world. I have been in fundraising pretty much my whole career. And before that, I was still in the nonprofit sector. So I intentionally moved into fundraising and moved in very quickly into corporate fundraising. I've been doing corporate fundraising exclusively for over 15 years, first in-house, and then for the last eight years with BridgeRaise, which is my company. It's a boutique consulting firm. We only do corporate partnerships and corporate fundraising for the charity and nonprofit sector and have so much fun doing it. And that's really how I got here and I'm happy to be here.

Jeff: That's awesome. We are so happy to have you on the podcast. So tell me, corporate fundraising -- what do you mean by that for our audience to really kind of understand? Because you said you used to do other fundraising. Now you do corporate fundraising. So what specifically is that?

Heather: We work with charities on raising money from companies, and especially as corporate partners. We really like to think about partnership between charities and companies as the best answer to more revenue, more sustainable revenue, more long-term revenue for our charitable organizations. So we design strategies and partnerships that look at it that way -- really based on values alignment and win-win propositions and just really thinking about this as an opportunity for both the company and the charity together to do something.

Jeff: That sounds awesome. And I sit on a variety of boards of nonprofits, and this always comes up from board members who always start by saying, we need some corporate sponsorships, right? And of course, there's kind of this long-held belief -- and it's proven with data -- that the vast majority of charitable donations come from individuals over corporations, but still, it's out there. And I'll be honest with you, I don't think most organizations -- obviously why BridgeRaise exists -- most organizations really don't know how to tap into it. So when you're talking about a corporate sponsorship and you're looking at a particular nonprofit, how's that process go? Are you trying to align values? Like you said, align values. Are you looking for corporations that believe in the mission of that particular organization? Or where does it start?

Heather: That's a really great question. And just to wind back a sec, it's so common to hear this. Like somebody thinks this is a good idea for our organization, a board director -- you know, why aren't you getting money from so-and-so and such-and-such? And I just want to say that it's great when there's that enthusiasm. And then it comes to this next step, which you asked about, which is does it make sense for us? And what is the first step? And it usually starts with really making sure that as an organization, you have a value proposition. You have an offer. You have something that actually makes sense for companies to support. And we're seeing this evolution in the sector where there was a time where companies gave donations to charitable organizations, to nonprofit organizations. And those times are quickly diminishing. Most companies, and certainly we're talking about companies, not small businesses, are getting more and more strategic about how they're giving this money. So the first thing you need to do is you have to have a clear offer, a clear reason why they're going to work with you.

Heather: And when we talk about partnership, alignment is a great term to use. It can be alignment on values. It could be alignment about that company has identified a change they want to see in the world and you activate that change in the world, and so we're going to match up. It could be audiences. We see when we're talking pure sponsorship that sometimes charities can introduce a company to an audience of people that they really want to meet. So alignment can mean different things. You can align in different ways. But the fact is there needs to be an alignment, a reason that you're fitting together. And it's usually more than the charity is just doing really good work. Because most of us are doing really good work at our charitable organizations or we wouldn't exist. So to get corporate partnerships, to get corporate funding, you need to have that next level of alignment, that next level of really good reason why they should invest in you.

Jeff: That's a good point you're making, because I would say throughout the history of whatever nonprofit I've been on, it's really been relationship driven more than anything else. Oh, Jeff knows somebody there. And so his company spends a lot of money with that vendor. So we're going to hit that vendor up for a sponsorship -- buy a table or be our silver sponsor at our fundraiser or something like that. But those, to me, are fleeting in some regard. And there's never kind of that ROI discussion that you're describing here, which is you walk into this corporation with an offer and that offer has a return for them. And it doesn't have to be a monetary return, but it's got to have -- to your point -- it's got to be something that the corporation gets out of it.

Heather: It doesn't have to be a monetary return. And I think in many cases it won't be. We know now that many companies are concerned about employee retention and employee engagement. And one of the best ways to retain and engage your employees is through volunteerism with charities -- creating new opportunities for your employees to do something meaningful for a charitable organization. So there's no necessarily monetary value of that, though there is data out there and you can point to different data points. But that offer is definitely a value to the company. And that's an example, but there can be many examples. If they've indicated in their community social responsibility targets that they're going to engage a certain community of people or they're going to make a certain difference in their community, you being able to do that on their behalf so that they don't have to do it themselves has a value to them. So these are the sorts of things that we're talking about.

Heather: And that does not mean -- to go back to your point -- that relationships don't matter. They so matter. And I think that it's the combination, the combo platter of do you have and can you build a relationship? Do you have a relationship and a good offer? And that together is a really strong recipe for success. And just to build on that for one sec, one of the things that I encourage people to do is to think about how they can build those relationships without always depending on sort of the you in this example, who knows the people already. Can you come up with strategies -- there are strategies for building more relationships, which can then give you more places to put your offers, more people to talk to about your offers. And so when we're talking about an organization that's got a really good corporate fundraising strategy, they're out there building relationships.

Jeff: I love what you just said -- an organization that has a really good corporate fundraising strategy -- because honestly I don't know many. So the fact that BridgeRaise exists is great because I think you're helping people accomplish that. Are these conversations and these offers typically tied to events, or are they typically tied to something else besides a fundraiser?

Heather: It can go both ways. I love events because I think one of the things that can be is like the culminating activity or the spotlight of the partnership. One of the things that I encourage our clients to think about is moving from that traditional model where a few months before the event we call and we're like, hey, we've got an event, here's our menu of options. You're going to pick one, come to it, and it's over. And that feels very transactional. It feels very event-specific. But you have this jewel event. You have this culminating activity, which is -- if you're doing it well -- a great showcase of your organization, maybe it has some cool mission moments. It's a great chance to really highlight your organization. So you do want your corporate partners there. So then the question is, how can you make that a piece of the puzzle?

Heather: And I suggest moving away from that sort of very focused only-on-the-event thinking to what would a year-round partnership look like where the culminating activity or one of the key moments in the partnership over the course of the year is your event. And you're maybe delivering a whole bunch of benefits to them through your event. But at other points of the year, you have touch points. They could be very light. They could be another employee engagement activity. It could be something that happens on social media. You might do a bit of research together. There's all kinds of different things. But that move from just the sponsorship of the event alone to something just a little bit bigger opens up more revenue for you as the charitable organization. Because if you're lucky, you're now maybe drawing from a couple of budgets at this organization. You're maybe getting into HR, getting some of the employee engagement money, or employee resource groups maybe help out at the activity and they put their money in. So this is one of the ways that you can get to a larger gift over time or a larger amount of support over time by building it out.

Jeff: And what you're bringing up, I think, is important for people to understand. So the event might be the entry point to a relationship with this corporation. And you've got to have a plan in place to figure out how do I extend this past the event? Who am I specifically encouraging to come from that corporation to our event, and then how am I starting to nurture and build a relationship with them, just like I would with my major donors? Or even any donor that shows up. And that's kind of a new thought that's popping into my head about how you make this work long term, because my experience on a lot of boards has been, hey, such-and-such law firm is going to buy a $10,000 sponsorship to this event. But what are we doing past that? Besides using them as our attorneys, what else are we doing to kind of keep them connected and involved? So I think it's important to have that strategy done up front.

Heather: Well, I mean, like with all fundraising, if you're going to move companies to bigger investments, it requires intention. No company is calling up and saying, hey, can I just give you another $50,000, another $5,000, another $2,000? It just doesn't happen that way. So if you are not planning for it, it is not going to happen. And I 100% agree with you that the event can be a moment to really generate some ideas. We talk about building sticky partnerships at our organization. And that means that you have multiple contact points. So you really want to look at -- if one person asked for this investment and it was one person on your board that asked for it -- how can we immediately start getting this relationship to move beyond those two people? Because if it's with those two people, the second that board director steps down or the second that person takes a new job, the whole thing falls apart. It goes away.

Jeff: You're absolutely right.

Heather: We need to right away be saying, okay, how can we get another person in this conversation? How can we invite a different person to a committee or something? And we do this intentionally. We're thinking -- we have a food bank and we have a logistics committee. Is there somebody at your company who specializes in logistics that can go over there? Or if you are talking about the legal situation, is it a different lawyer that can be our advisor, not the one that we asked initially for the sponsorship? How do we start thinking about getting multiple relationships going? Because if you have multiple relationships going, then you have a much better chance of getting renewed support. And we all know it takes so much to get the first one to happen. The worst thing is that it be the only one.

Jeff: I know. And to keep it going, too. I mean, that's the other challenge because you're like, oh my gosh, I got this amazing $5,000 donation. And then that person, to your point, leaves the company or they get disconnected from the charity and it's gone. But why does it need to be gone? It doesn't need to be gone.

Jeff: So it kind of brings me to my next question. You're trying to establish a relationship with a plan on how you're going to sustain it. But how do you know what to ask for? I mean, if I came to you as a charity and said, I'm running a fundraiser and I want to get corporate sponsorships, I don't know what I'm doing. Heather, what am I asking for? Am I asking for a thousand bucks? Am I asking for $5,000, $10,000? Should I have a title sponsor? What should that be? How do you help charities figure that out?

Heather: It does start with sort of us doing a bit of an inventory of what you have to offer. How many people are coming to this event? Do we know a lot about them? What are the activities or activations or ways that the company can be profiled? To my point earlier, is there things outside of the event that makes this a longer engagement so they get more touch points and more benefits? Am I going to promote them in social media? So we do a little bit of an inventory of those things and start to think about that. And then what we're really talking about is pricing, honestly. There's a number of different models that are out there.

Heather: And for me, the model is the one that gets you making the phone call and making the ask. So let's start there because you can spend a lot of time worrying about do we have the right number and nobody's asking anybody for money.

Jeff: Or you're too late. I mean, that's the other thing I've run into -- you spend so much time iterating on your sponsorship packages. And then you get out there and they're like, I already spent all my money for this year. But I'll do it next year.

Heather: 100%. This happens to everybody. This happens all the time. And it's in design and all these things, and I'm like, hey, send the email, have a conversation. You don't need a fancy designed thing. No offense to all those designers out there who are making those fancy things -- make them -- we're just going to go ahead and send that email without you. As you grow and build, getting a fancy design thing can be helpful. It's not for never. But if it's holding you up from having a good conversation where you ask questions, you find out what they want and you get going, then it's just holding you up from getting to the actual meat of the situation.

Heather: So we do work with organizations on getting that tool in place. But more importantly, we try to get you having conversations because we can recommend pricing. We can do it based on benchmarking. We can do it based on the marketing value of what you're offering. We can do it based on replacement value -- what's the alternative that's available in the market? These are all standard ways of deciding on the price. We can figure those things out. But if we're spending so much time figuring those out that we don't test the offers with companies, we're making a mistake because the amount that it is worth is what they will pay. And it has got to do with the relationship and the conversation that you're having much more so than getting every single item right on any kind of list. My experience is if you have the conversation, they will tell you what they want.

Jeff: No, you're absolutely right. I sit on the board of a rare disease charity -- a disease my daughter has. And I just had this conversation recently with a drug company. He's like, we'd love to sponsor your event. I'm like, well, what do you typically give? And he's throwing numbers out there. I'm like, great, I already have my prices. I know what he can get approval for. So now I can build the package around it. So what do you want in return for that? If you gave me $10,000, what do you want? And so you can look at it both ways. In that case, you're saying, I need to give you enough justification. So when you go to your boss and say, we're sponsoring this event for $10K, this is what we're getting -- the boss signs off on it, you're good. The flip side of that is when you don't have that level of relationship yet, and you go in there and you're like, what is it that you want and let me see how much of that I can get you and then we'll price it. So what do you want -- you want exposure to 500 people that are of this demographic profile that are all coming to the event? Okay, let me go create that environment and come back to you with the stats and then you tell me what you think it's worth.

Heather: Or you can do some marketing number multiplications. But at the end of the day, I think we really convince ourselves that there's a perfectly right answer to this question. I get asked every day -- I'm afraid I'm not going to price it right. I'm afraid they're going to take advantage. They're going to get it for too low. The truth is, it's not a science. It's an art. There's factual information for sure that you can leverage. But at the end of the day, that combines with the relationship and the brand recognition of your charity and how big it is and how small, all kinds of things. Moment in time that you're asking the company. What industry they're in? Are they struggling right now? There's so many factors that to pretend that there's an absolute right answer that's going to stand the test of time, to me, is a foolhardy statement because we had numbers that were working six months ago and they're not now because whatever. It ebbs and flows.

Jeff: I mean, I have gotten various organizations in various industries to sponsor and donate significant sums of cash in particular years when their industry was doing very well, just to turn around and watch either changing political climate or some other type of economic change and all of a sudden they're not doing well and their budget gets cut in half. And it happens, but it can come back. So I like the point you're making that it is an art. It's something that you just kind of have to manage to. In some cases, we sit here and we say, I'm delivering a demographic that is attractive to this particular corporation. And so let's build the package that gives them the exposure they want. In other cases, I've had people write me a check for ten grand and they could care less what kind of exposure they get.

Heather: Exactly. And some people will be epically focused on one specific thing that they want out of the whole package. And the rest of the package doesn't matter at all if you just do this one thing. And that's it. And when we think about what happens in a year like this year where there's been a number of natural disasters in your country too, we see a bunch of money that maybe was available at one point -- people are like, most of the time they didn't get extra money. They had to take that money and allocate it to something that has happened in this moment in time. And that happens with corporate maybe more than it does with some of the other money out there. They have a certain envelope of money for the year and it's meant to go to certain places. Some companies will have a little bit of discretionary in case of emergencies, but many of them will get to an emergency and be like, we're going all in on this, this is the need this year. And then all those other things get maybe skinned up, maybe they get noes, or maybe it's just like, this year can you give me the same thing but at half price because that's all we have left. And then you have to decide.

Jeff: For sure. And that's why we always encourage our clients and others to get in there early -- get in the first fruits of that budget before it gets consumed by all the unforeseen things that happen to corporations and people in life.

Heather: Well, it's such good advice. And you said it earlier. The longer we take getting to the point where we have the conversation -- that is time you don't get back. And that is one of the biggest indicators of success or failure -- the amount of time you have before the culminating event, if it's based on an event. Too often I see people coming and trying to get these things to happen really quickly. All the data backs up that for corporate partnerships of any kind of size, nine, twelve, eighteen months is not unusual. If you're talking about small businesses, okay, that's different. It's more akin to major gifts or something like that. Those checks can be written more quickly, but it's still probably four months, five months.

Jeff: No, I am freaking out right now. Our Derby event, obviously, is the first Saturday in May. It's May 3rd next year. And we are well up against that deadline. And so I'm all over the fancy sponsorship package that's being designed. I'm ready to push that thing along. We've got to get out there, Heather. I mean, we are behind at least a solid month. Because you're right -- for some of the local businesses in Colorado it's not that big of a deal, we have some time. But for some of the bigger sponsorships we're looking for, not so much. I think we are up against the gun on people saying they've already allocated their budget. And there's a lot of corporations that have a September 30th fiscal year, and we're right on it.

Heather: Well, this is it. And I love that you brought up fiscal year, because when we talk strategy, that's another place where you can really leverage the strategy of their fiscal year. We get really hung up at our organizations about our fiscal year and our targets. But obviously a company that has a September 30th fiscal year or, you know, we know a bunch that have March or April -- there is an opportunity to build some thinking around that. You might make an ask close to the end of their fiscal year, see if there's anything hanging around at that point. But also, if you miss that, you need to be right there at the beginning. You can have that kind of planning and thinking if you're being intentional about a partnership that lasts over time. It's very hard to do if you're transaction-related to your event and your event's in May, so this is your calendar. But if you flip it around and say we're going to renew these partners on an annual basis, one of the things that we do with them is in May, then you can start looking at their calendar and say, okay, when's the right time to ask them? And if they're used to you over time and they have this Derby on their radar year after year, you don't need to have the perfect deck. It's just like the fulfillment report on last year's results -- now what's happening next. We can do that before we even have the new deck based on the awesome results of your previous event.

Jeff: And it's one of those things where there's a quick follow-up after the event -- here's how it went, here's the exposure you got, or whatever information some of these corporations require. And then it's within a very short time period after that, let's talk about next year. And I think funny though, for all of us that run events we probably are like, we don't want to think about next year. We just got done with this year. I need a break.

Heather: You can take a little one, but it better not be too long because these sponsorships can take nine months or longer. And that's where my suggestion of having some other things can help, because maybe you're not ready to talk about the next year's event yet. And if you have an event that lasts over time, you're more likely to be ready. But if you aren't ready, do you have some other little things that you can invite them to or you connect with them over at some other point in a year that just keeps them warm? You're just keeping the relationship warm. So you're not waiting until six months out. They kind of know you're coming. You're on their minds. I think there's this radio silence while we recover. Maybe there's another department that could give a program update or do a tour, something that is off-calendar from your main thing that just gives you something else to be in touch with them about. And there's a little sentence in there that says, and don't worry, we're getting ready for next year. It's on this day. Getting ready for next year.

Jeff: But you're bringing up something that I think is really important. It's a great strategy. And it actually got thrown in my face. I didn't even think about this, but I was talking to this drug company, and they want to sponsor next year. At least they're interested. But that's next year. He's like, well, what do you want to do this year? I have some money left this year. I don't have that level of money left, but I could probably throw a thousand bucks at an event or something. I'm like, okay, well, let's sponsor a swim party for the kids that we serve in this charity. He's like, perfect. Just tell me when and tell me where. I'll write the check. But you miss those if you don't ask. And you don't think about, okay, well, that would be a really cool thing -- maybe a swim party or a bowling event or something like that. I'm going to go out there and I'm going to probably drop a thousand dollars renting the pool and buying some food. But maybe we'll let this drug company sponsor it. And he can come and meet all the kids and maybe talk to the parents. And it's a great ROI for him because they're trying to get these parents on these clinical trials. And I didn't even think about it. Perfect. So let's keep that relationship going.

Jeff: And I think for all of us who are listening to this podcast, there's probably those little micro events where it's just petty cash in some regards to some of these corporations, but it can be meaningful in terms of the relationship building and keeping them warm for the bigger event in the future.

Heather: And for some of our small organizations, that's their thing. Honestly, those small events throughout the year is their partnership program. Maybe they don't have a big thing. That's okay. You could package together a few of those little things over a year and turn it into a partnership. And if you're a smaller organization, you're realistically probably not going to have a ton of corporate partners. You'd be better off -- and this is another strategy -- you'd be better off packaging those things together and trying to get one or two slightly bigger corporate partners you could really take care of well. Then divide it all up and try to get a whole bunch of little ones. And then you're managing all these small relationships and it's very time-intense and it's a lot of effort. I think for really small ones, you're better off getting a few bigger partners where they become like a little group that you give everything of your inventory to. But in return, they invest in you and they get a seat on your board and they're on some of your committees and they really embrace you as one of theirs. And it can be really a great strategy for a smaller organization who doesn't want to take care of a whole slew of different corporate partners at a very small amount.

Jeff: That's great. And I agree 100%. It doesn't have to be one big event. It can be lots of little small events. It can be other types of engagements that you have with corporations that they find meaningful. The volunteer thing I thought was interesting. You brought that up in the beginning -- even just creating opportunities for their employees to get connected is also super powerful.

Jeff: So this has been an amazing conversation. I'd love for you as we kind of wrap this up just to give some insights and thoughts to our listeners about how do they get started with this? What advice do you have -- whether it be where they start in terms of do they hire a consultant, where do they find expertise, how do they get trained, what do they need, what are the pitfalls that they might run into along the way? Just leave us with some wisdom if you can.

Heather: Sure. Getting started, I really do recommend sitting down. It can be a small group of people. Maybe there's a board director or your team member. And ask the question -- what are we offering? What's our offer? What are we willing to do? Is there any guardrails around what kind of companies we do and don't want to work with? We have a couple of questions, and your listeners can join BridgeRaise and get some free resources -- a couple of questions that we get you to ask yourself and answer. What are we offering? Why are we doing this? Who are we willing to work with? Get those basics written down. Doesn't have to be fancy. Google Doc, write it down.

Heather: And then the next step is really starting to package that up enough that you can go and have a conversation. And I would say, as quickly as you can, get to the place where you're at least having a few conversations and you're getting feedback on what you're putting together. If you can do that, that will really get you started on building a corporate partner program. Obviously I would be remiss if I didn't say BridgeRaise -- we do help organizations. We have a Springboard program that's for smaller organizations where we walk them through and support them in getting these things set up and getting their prospect pipeline started over a period of six months. We do it over that length of time because that's about how much time most small organizations can carve out to focus on corporate, because as you said, they need to do individuals, they need to do other things for the most part. And bigger organizations, we help them with their larger frameworks and things like that. But in their case, it's the same. We're still making sure we get the case for corporate right. What is the real business reason or the values-based reason, the mission-based reason why we're going to invest our money and our time in this partnership? Getting clear on that first before anything else, before we'd go into design. That was my advice.

Jeff: I love it. I mean, some people -- it's so funny -- it's like, what are our packages going to be? Let's get the designers involved and let's go figure it out. I'm like, how about we just open a Google Doc and just start putting some bullets on a page and figuring it out? But all good stuff. And the hardest part I think for a lot of us is to get started. So we just need to get started and then kind of let it steamroll from there.

Heather: I cannot agree more. I'm always saying just go have a conversation and we'll figure out the documents you need after that.

Jeff: And ChatGPT will help you with the documents anyway, I'm sure.

Jeff: Well, this has been amazing. Heather, thank you so much for sharing all of your wisdom with us. If anybody's interested in reaching out to BridgeRaise, how do they get a hold of you?

Heather: You can find me at my website, bridgeraise.com. I am also very active on LinkedIn. I love people following me there. And I try my best to share helpful tools and ideas on LinkedIn. So connect with me there.

Jeff: And you might see her speaking at an AFP conference in the future. We'll see. You never know. All righty. Well, let's wrap up this episode. Thank you guys so much for listening in to the Elevate Your Event podcast. Until next time, happy fundraising. If you enjoyed our show, please take a moment to leave us a review. You can find us on Apple, Google, and Spotify. Don't forget to subscribe for more great content. And if you're a fan of video, check us out on YouTube. Until next time, happy fundraising.