7 corporate partnership ideas for nonprofits using your QR Code
There are more ways to form corporate partnerships than simply asking for sponsorship dollars. And while you can’t pay the bills with non-financial alliances, they can open the door to further opportunities that include monetary gifts. By using a strategy to partner with a local company to share your message with their audience, you’re offering the business an opportunity to show their own philanthropic support and potentially gain a whole new audience for your cause.
The most basic method for this type of partnership is to create a printable insert that the company agrees to share with their customers or potential clients. The magic is in the message, the delivery, and the partnership!
For this strategy to be effective, there are a few criteria to follow:
Your printable must be professional and concise, include the necessary elements, and have a compelling message.
Your call to action must be trackable – to make these efforts worthwhile, you have to know if it’s working.
Before we look at the partnership ideas, let’s address each individually.
What to include on your printable
Your printable insert must be professional and printed on high-quality paper. While the size can vary, a unique size is more effective. For instance, you don’t want an 8.5 x 11 flyer. That’s the quickest way to get someone to throw in the trash or even refuse to take it.
Opt for a square design, a postcard size, or a bookmark layout
Print it professionally. You can design the printable in Canva but have it professionally printed on heavier stock paper.
Adhere to your brand. This isn’t the time for wild colors, five fonts, and lots of text. Keep it simple.
Include your QR code. If you’re not accustomed to using these, read this post about nonprofit QR codes first.
Include your website. If someone isn’t sure how to use a QR code, you still want them to find you online. You can write something like, “scan our QR code using your phone or visit our website directly at www.abc.org
Where should your QR code lead?
It’s a mistake to use your homepage as the primary link for your QR code for two reasons.
Linking directly to your homepage requires the person viewing your website to click at least once to get somewhere to take action. It’s more likely they’ll view it, scan it, and close it.
There is no way to track whether or not the promotional efforts are working. Your site visits will be lumped in with every other marketing piece or action you’re using.
Here’s what to do instead:
Create a landing page
A landing page is just a special page on your website with a specific purpose. Effective landing pages are concise and designed to deliver a specific message. In this case, your landing page will be specific to your partnership effort.
Let’s use the example of a library partnership –
If you’re placing your printable in library books, as mentioned in number one in the list below, your landing page might have a headline that reads:
How’s the book?
Then, the headline is followed by a short paragraph about your gratitude for partnering with the library and how your two missions align. (Perhaps they also serve your audience or vice-versa).
Next, your landing page should offer two calls to action – one way to support you financially and one way to get involved in a non-monetary way. This option might be attending an upcoming event, volunteering, etc.
Most importantly, this landing page needs to have a specific slug – the content that follows the slash in your website address. For example, www.abc.org/library
Bonus idea – if you’re working with a local business, you might explore having the company offer an exclusive discount or promo code that you can include on your landing page. For the customer to access the code, they’ll have to visit your website!
Corporate partnership ideas for nonprofits
Here are seven out-of-the-box ideas to use your nonprofit QR Code in a corporate partnership to spread awareness for your work and the impact you make.
Partner with your local library
Since the onset of COVID-19, library visits and patron numbers have skyrocketed. As an avid reader myself, I know how valuable the local library is to communities, and most, if not all, are led by community-minded folks.
Reach out to your local library and ask if you can insert a bookmark into the borrowed books.
Be a part of lunch
If you have a local deli or Honeybaked Ham, the chances are good that the companies in your region are using them for corporate meetings and events. Boxed lunches are a staple among these types of corporate environments.
Ask your local deli if you can insert a small, postcard size printable into each boxed lunch.
Get in the car
Our car dealerships are always trying to one-up each other by touting their philanthropy and community involvement in our community. So ask your local car dealership if you can slip your printable into the cupholder of each vehicle on their lot.
New job, new cause
Most employers tend to provide new employees with a welcome packet, even if it only includes the tax forms, company policies, etc. Ask your major local employers if you can provide your printable into the new employee welcome packet.
Whether the employee is local or new to town, understanding your organization’s impact and cause can help make them feel like a bigger part of the community.
Show your support for other nonprofits
When the local sports teams and other nonprofit organizations are looking for sponsorships, they tend to head straight to the small businesses in town. However, no rule states your nonprofit can’t sponsor an event or place ads in local event programs.
Follow the advice in this sponsorship guide and if it’s a good fit, place an ad on behalf of your organization. Then, just translate your printable content into the space provided by the ad.
Go for the niche businesses
While approaching the larger, more corporate businesses in town is often apparent, sometimes working with local or niche companies is a more accessible foot in the door. Visit your local shops like locally-owned restaurants, bakeries, boutiques, and fabric stores to explore ways you can expose their customers to your cause. Opt for methods that allow you to use your QR on items with longevity, like permanent store displays, menus, or upholstery fabric sample books that are likely to be around for a while.
Appeal to the crowds
Think about the places in your community where everyone tends to gather – the shopping mall, for instance. Seek out ways to include your materials in the mall food court (table tents are great, as are decals affixed to the table itself if offered).
Or, offer to set up a display in the mall one day a month to let the community know about your work. This is a great way to expose individual mall tenants to your work, as well.
Which of these ideas sounds great to you? Do you have others to add to the list? Let us know in the comments!
Until next time,
Andrea
Need more strategic advice on corporate sponsorship and partnership ideas and outreach? Check out the Sponsorship Proposal Template in the Nonprofit Template Shop.
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