A friend once met Bill Clinton at a gala event. Wary of his reputation as ‘a hard dog to keep on the porch’ (thanks Hillary), she approached the meeting with a high degree of suspicion. But at the end of five minutes, she was so smitten that she wanted to book a hotel room after the entree was served. Why? In addition to his famous charisma, he made her feel like she was the only person in the room. He was charming, focused entirely on getting to know her and listened like he was hanging on every word.
Do you have a corporate partner begging to work with you at the first meeting? Unlikely. It’s probably because you’ve led with a 20 slide PowerPoint pitch. You’ve done the work and polished that pitch deck to within an inch of its life. It’s visually sharp, packed with stats and gorgeous images, and crafted to impress.
You send it off to a prospective corporate partner, hoping it’ll open doors. But all you get is silence.
What went wrong?
Pitch decks don’t build partnerships—people do.
Too often, nonprofits lead with content instead of connection. They assume that a slick deck will do the heavy lifting. But a one-way broadcast doesn’t create a two-way relationship.
We spoke to one non-profit that had spent weeks crafting a slide deck, a brochure and a video. They had proudly delivered all three, at once, to prospective partners at the first meeting. They got a polite reception but no follow up responses or interest and couldn’t figure out why.
A deck that focuses solely on your needs will never uncover their priorities. If you’re busy delivering a monologue you’re not listening. Partnerships aren’t transactions, they’re collaborations and you can’t collaborate if your partner can’t get a word in edgeways.
When Great Southern Bank partnered with Mission Australia they spent the first nine months of the relationship collaborating and co-designing the partnerships. As the Sustainability Manager of GSB said “We deliberately sought a partner willing to innovate with us, to create something bespoke and meaningful, rather than just providing funding for existing initiatives.” They now have a $1mln+ partnership changing the story around sustainable solutions for low income housing.
You can’t prescribe the solution before you’ve diagnosed the problem.
Let’s be blunt: most corporate decks are filled with assumptions. It’s the first meeting, so you don’t have any idea what they want. If you’ve done your desktop you’ve at least got a hypothesis but that needs to be tested in real life.
Pitch decks usually ask for event sponsorship, donations, program funding or in-kind support. You may have defaulted to the old, tiered packages approach. But what if the company you’re targeting cares more about employee engagement? Or ESG reporting? Or brand differentiation?
You’ve just offered them a solution to a problem they don’t have.
Real partnerships start with real conversations.
The hard truth is most corporate partners don’t want a pitch deck, they want a real conversation. Your glossy deck may be doing your cause more harm than good. Instead of pitching, start with listening. Lead with curiosity not content.
Ask them:
- What challenges are keeping your exec team up at night? What’s your squeaky wheel?
- What does success look like this year?
- How would you like to connect with your people, customers, and communities?
This shifts the dynamic. You’re not begging for support- you’re exploring a shared opportunity.
A grassroots charity once developed a standard pitch deck to solicit partners for their annual gala ball. They approached a company that had already volunteered with them. After listing the many opportunities to place their logo around the ballroom, be featured in social media and speak at the event, there was silence. Until the charity asked the big question- what do you want? The answer was none of the above. They were happy to support the gala but all they wanted was more volunteering for their staff.
Ditch the deck. Build the dialogue.
You don’t encourage dialogue with a slide deck. Listening builds trust whilst pitching builds resistance. No-one enjoys being sold to, or you wouldn’t be hanging up when the cold caller hits you at 7pm over dinner. Here’s what to do instead:
- Book a discovery meeting before you send a single slide.
- Go in with questions, not a fixed offer.
- Share your impact through stories, not slides.
- Explore how your work can help solve their problems.
- Co-design the opportunity together
We recommend a credentials document instead of a slide-heavy pitch deck. A credentials document is intended as a warmup, to inspire, surprise and pique their interest. You don’t read it to your prospect; you leave it behind. You might refer to one or two key stats or stories during the conversation, but that’s all. It’s not a proposal and a much better tool for board members or leaders that don’t want to go into a first meeting empty-handed.
When the solution is co-created, the buy-in is 10x stronger. Now, they’re not just a funder: they’re a partner.
The right partnership isn’t won in PowerPoint. It’s built in conversation. Leave the deck at home and bring your ears instead. And the best decks? They come later—after you’ve listened. And you’re much likely to get them begging to work with you.