Non Profit Best Practice: Develop ways to actively engage government and corporate entities

Non Profit Best Practice: Develop ways to actively engage government and corporate entities.

Who to engage
If this a new concept for your organization so many possibilities exist, if this is something your organization is already doing and looking to expand a more serious examination might be needed to identify who these entities are.

For those who are just starting this process: Ask yourself , your board and your leadership the following series of questions. *Please note I use the word clients as much of my experience has been organizations service people. If your serving another mission say an environmental cause replace clients with impact area.

• What entities do we impact? (Example: Schools, or after-school programs)
• What entities impact our services? (Example: City Council)
• What entities impact our clients? (Example: Schools, or after-school programs)
• What entities do our clients impact? (Example: Schools, or after-school programs)
• What entities directly affect or staff and supporters? (Example: City Council)

The list you come up with is where you should start to make efforts to engage.

For those of you who are looking to expand: Now is a good time to reach out to your staff and clients to solicit ideas.

• What companies or agencies do they engage with other than yours? (Example: Faith based groups)
• What in your community do they see opportunities for engagement? (Example: Garden Club)
• What opportunities exist for your organization to be seen as a leader in your field? (Example: Present at a conference)

How to do this

Now you have made a list of corporate and government entities, what next?

1. Research - Spend time to learn about those on your list, who are the key contact people, how they work and if they have any past experience working with non profits.
2. Reach out indirectly - Invite the entity to one of your events. Most likely they wont come but it will start the process of them knowing your organization exist and gives them an insight into some the work you do.
3. Reach out directly - Call or stop in, whatever is appropriate in the community you work in. See if you can introduce yourself to a decision maker and at the very least have an opportunity to pick the receptionist brain about the way they work. - Your goal at this phase is just to become familiar, learn more about them as individuals and the work they do.
4. Continue contact - in the following 3 months keep communicating, follow up with card after the initial meeting thanking them for taking the time to meet with you, invite them to another event, share something that you think they would be interested in knowing (local news or subject related article), connect via linked in or other social network.
5. Evaluate - At this point make the decision is this a company or agency that we would benefit from a more formal working relationship.

1. Yes - Set a time to make the request
2. No - Keep inviting them to events but move your energy onto the next potential, you have gained a connection that is worth keeping.

Why it matters

Non profits cant operate in isolation. Active engagement of government and corporate entities can open up a variety of benefits to your organization. The most obvious opportunities are for potential donations or volunteers. Many other opportunities exist that these relationships could provide your no profit with including: insight, local/ relevant news, referrals and advocacy.

Practitioner examples.

In one agency I worked for I made contact with a local pastoral association. It turned out that one of the pastors was childhood friends with the city manager. Due to this connection when our agency needed support from the city manager I was able to reach out to this pastor and use him to open the relationship for my organization to be supported by the city manager.

In a different agency I work for we begun developing a relationship with a large company who was expanding and moving employees and their families into the area. As this relationship was developing we noticed that several of their employees were using our services, we were able to share this information with the company allowing them to refine their relocation process to better support their employees families.

In both of the above examples the relationships continued to grow and the agencies I worked for saw expanded benefits of donations, volunteers and community advocates.