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

Non-profit is incorporated as a 501c(3) and must be approved by the government for the tax advantages to take effect. A social business or perhaps a Benefit Corporation is a new corporate structure available in certain states that allow the for profit corporation to put the "Social Mission" of the company ahead of the "Shareholder Profits".

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!

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!

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.

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.