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MenuAre there any professional services available in the U.S a non profit can hire to pitch specific corporations for donations?
Just launching my for profit startup (app) which has a non profit section to help families in tragedy. Looking to hire a professional who can pitch my company to the right corporations to get donations to start helping families immediately as to also have funds to continue to hire this individual ongoing to broaden my companies reach.
Answers
So, is the charity whats receiving the funding or is your for-profit company. From the sounds of it, it seems the for-profit company is more important than the for charity. I would raise money for your for-profit company and create a structure that when your "profit" company does "X,"you're not for profit company gets "X." Think Warby Parker, buy a pair of glasses they give a pair of glasses. Or bonobos.
I know this isn't exactly what you were looking to hear, but I only say it because you seem to be a caring individual putting the not for profit first to help others, but you can continue to help others if the for-profit succeeds. Otherwise, you should create a not for profit.
We should talk, seriously. I specialize in development and throughout my extensive professional experience I have structured succesful major gifts programs for numerous nonprofits. Corporate giving is usually restricted: 1. Can be donated to 501 (c) 3 or 7 orgs. without exception. 2. Will be designated or restricted to a specific need or program area. In other words the donations will not permit operational expenses to be covered - this includes program admin. I specialize in unrestricted major gifts. My background includes nonprofit development, operations and executive director, as well as advisor, so I have a unique understanding of what you seek to accomplish and how it should be done. Reach out and let's get this done.
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Having worked in a large non-profit, I'd need to know whether your product aligns with the mission and the goal priorities of our organization (the first hurdle). You might be surprised to know that non-profits get approached about being involved in a lot of things. Whether something is "free" or not, it still requires mission alignment, and staff time to consider and act on. If I was hooked on it's ability to support the mission/our goals, I'd then need to evaluate the time to implement and upkeep (the second hurdle). The primary question in this setting is "Can we take action on it today without any additional cost and minimal staff time?" Effective non-profits are very mindful of scope creep. They want their staff to be working toward their respective goals as much as possible since the general public evaluates their effectiveness on money spent on programs/overhead. Hope this helps you tailor your outreach!AS
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As someone who has founded and fundraised for a social venture, I can tell you that the fundraiser must be the CEO or President. Fundraising for a non-profit is all about building a relationship with your donor base, and the donation is often as much because the donor likes the person & people as much as they like the work being done by the Foundation. One of the most difficult paradoxes of raising for a non-profit web platform is that the more someone becomes excited by the potential of the platform, the more that they would prefer to invest cash for equity than simply donate and looking back on it, I think that would have simplified things for my social enterprise and would have been able to attract far more capital. The other avenue that you can explore is to build in tipping or crowdfunding for your operation directly into the online experience but that will only be a viable source of funds with significant traffic and thus, the operating capital required to grow the business requires proactive outreach to supporters. Happy to speak with you about this in more detail in a call.TW
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