Numbers have a peculiar hold on our collective imagination. People avoid buying number 13 houses, whilst my Chinese cousins competed to hold their weddings on 8/8/08. And what in earth is going on with that 6-7 thing?
We love to codify our lives with numbers- maybe to make ourselves feel like we’re rational beings, more in control than we are. That’s why your social media is full of posts with the 5 ways to youthful skin, the 7-week body transformation, the 4-hour workweek or 3 habits of successful CEOs.
Numbers have their place in corporate partnerships too, but sometimes not in the way you expect. It’s not about numbers of dollars raised. It’s the metrics that shape the way partnerships are won and run.
Here are the ones you need to know.
12-18 months to a yes
It takes at least this long to win a partnership from lukewarm or cold contacts. Why does partnership acquisition take so long? Because you’re not in control of the process. Sure, you’ve approached the corporate, nurtured the relationship, provided several rounds of proposals and briefings. But you’re at the mercy of the corporate’s decision process, levels of authority and budget cycles. If you miss a critical time, you’ll have to wait another twelve months for budget to become available.
For a strategic, integrated partnership, you may spend another 12 months just figuring out how to work together for the impact you both want. Mission Australia and Great Southern Bank used the first twelve months of their partnership collaborating and building the components together. RFDS QLD and Rio Tinto have been focused on planning for impact measurement and capability building and they’ve only just made it to the MOU after 18 months of discussions.
12-18 months is the number that needs to be stapled to your CEO’s door. Then they won’t be setting unrealistic targets for your first year of prospecting.
3 years to build a partnership program
There is an acknowledgement that Gifts In Wills programs are a 10-year+ investment of time and effort. But for some reason NFP leaders are in a hurry with corporate partnerships. Partnerships are not a quick fix. If you’re serious about sustainable, meaningful partnerships, then allow at least 3 years to build your program:
• Y1- invest in people, processes and foundations. At best, you’ll cover your costs unless you’re a big brand with lots of incoming approaches. Fail to build the right foundations and you’ll have burnout, staff churn and frustration.
• Y2- active prospecting and nurture. Some small wins and you’ll be opening up lots of new opportunities for Y3.
• Y3- starting to build a portfolio of meaningful partnerships
It’s not sensible to expect big dollars in year 1, especially if you’re still building your strategy and processes at the same time. Don’t make the lives of your partnership team a misery by demanding a million dollars by Christmas.
2 prime prospecting times
Non-profits want to be front of mind when a corporate is planning budgets. For those on the Australian financial year it’s February/ March, and for the calendar year organisations it’s August/ September. The longer the lead time for building warm relationships, the more likely there will room in the budget for you. If you miss the cut-off, the corporate will lock down their plans and you’ll have to wait another twelve months for a commitment. Give yourself a long runway for approaches, as you don’t want to knock on the door with a cold proposal in the middle of budgeting time. Take time to warm them up first and figure out who has decision rights on a partnership.
6-12 months for retail activations
If you’re planning a cause marketing partnership or retail activations, be aware of the lead time for marketing, packaging and product development. I worked on a winter campaign with Procter & Gamble for their Vicks product. It required sign-off on packaging from their Singapore regional office and final approval on the campaign approach from US HQ. Similarly, when Target chose Australian Childhood Foundation as their signature partner in July, they launched their brand refresh in October and were planning for new product development for Christmas the following year. You may have signed the partnership contract, but don’t expect the money to be flowing immediately with B2C activations.
10 meaningful prospects
Partnership people ask us constantly, ‘how many prospects should I have in my pipeline?’ We find that actively nurturing more than 10 new prospects at one time is unsustainable. That’s because relationship management takes time, and you’ll often be restarting with new contacts as you work through the organisation. Hopefully, you’re not sending 100 cold proposals to info@corporate.com as partnerships are not a volume game. An unsolicited list of demands is not a great start to a relationship. This is something that fundraising managers or leaders used to regular giving find hard to understand. You’re looking for quality, not quantity- and a large quantity of low-value leads will actually destroy value.
We can’t give you the 10 commandments of partnerships. Relationships don’t fit easily into a numerical formula. But understanding the key numbers (and sharing them with your leadership) will give you a realistic runway for success.