Are there any professional services available in the U.S a non profit can hire to pitch specific corporations for donations?

I agree with Mark in that it truly depends what you’re trying to accomplish. Is this a business that you plan on keeping for yourself and/or family, or is there a different exit strategy in place such as selling the brand, an IPO, or being acquired by another company. When it comes to business and deciding the corporate structure, there’s a few things I’d recommend considering. 1. Entity Type (there’s pros and cons to each type. Check with your CPA) 2. Revenue Model (yes, even NPO’s need this) 3. Business/Strategic Plan 4. Customers - What do they look like and how do you find/reach them 5. Exit strategy. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to offer further clarity to you!

I would suggest the first question to ask is "what problem do I solve?" And of those people I solve problems for "who do I create the most value for?" In the non-profit world you need to add "How does my business help the non-profit run better and/or help the group the non-profit focuses on?" For example, if you've created a platform that drives donations, your company "has created a platform that helps you reach fundraising goals faster." What you don't want to do is market and sell to B2B and B2C audiences simultaneously. They have different ways of buying - a B2B audience needs to have their benefits quantified (using your thing makes me x amount more) - and it's extremely hard for a startup to be able to do both well. Better to start with one, execute really well and move into the other. Feel free to give me a call and we can dig into who your most valuable audience is.

The best way to raise money is using websites like indiegogo.com or www.kickstarter.com Another approach is to put ads on your website (even though it's not done yet) and add a donation option to your website.

This is not a sarcastic comment: you hire a marketer or marketing firm that knows what they are doing. Marketing is a science and art that requires skill-- it's like a doctor/surgeon for your company. You wouldn't do open heart surgery on yourself-- why would you try to do surgery on your company? If you'd like more help, feel free to set up a call.

For background, I'm an active board member for two charities, am a past board member of CIRA (which runs the .CA domain) and am a graduate non-profit governance essentials course from the Institute of Corporate Directors. I also built Canada's first crowdfunding website that distributed over $3m to charities from over 115,000 members and in the process interacted with literally hundreds of charities on social media and cause marketing. Every board member needs to be willing and able to raise funds. I believe that every board member of a small non-profit (less than $250,000 in operating budget) should be able to raise at least 10% of the annual budget. Also important is values alignment ensuring that the board member understands and agrees with what the organization stands for. Finally, as much as is possible, ensure that each board member brings a missing skillset. Social Media competency in one, accounting in the other, for example. Final piece of advice is that good board members should be hard to get. The commitment of time and energy is significant and so therefore, anyone who is willing to join without much convincing or discussion is probably someone who isn't going to be prepared to do the heavy lifting. Happy to talk to you in a call about board composition or anything else. I have a huge passion for helping the non-profit sector and especially grassroots organizations like yours.