By Hope Allyn
So, your business has decided to move forward with selecting a nonprofit organization with which to partner. But in addition to recognizing the importance of giving back and supporting causes, there might be other benefits to aligning with a nonprofit that doesn’t immediately come to mind. Here are three additional reasons why establishing a long-term relationship with a nonprofit can be a good idea for your brand or organization.
1. Diversify Your Audience While Maintaining Your Mission
Your ideal nonprofit will create awareness in regions, interests, and demographics that might generally be out of the grasp of your organization. In addition, a nonprofit partner can expand your reach by branching into different audiences your organization wouldn’t otherwise engage with.
Think about potential consumers who’d benefit from your company’s services but aren’t being reached. Consider what mutual passions or interests they might share with a given nonprofit. Also, reflect on your business mission. Your nonprofit partner can help your business expand to a new cross-section of people and show this new target group that you value and prioritize the same morals, beliefs, and causes.
2. Grab Attention Through a New Medium or Different Approach
Everything surrounding us daily is some form of marketing, making it difficult for your brand to stand out. A nonprofit partnership can be a great way to mix up where and how you communicate with the public.
A strong example of a mixed medium business nonprofit pairing is our client, Bob Evans Farms, and their partnership with the National Military Family Association’s Operation Purple® Camp, a free summer camp offered exclusively to children of military families. Since its inception in 2004, it has served more than 65,000 kids, allowing them to swim, canoe, climb, learn archery, create arts and crafts, make friends, and talk with counselors about how best to overcome the stressors of military life. To support Operation Purple, Bob Evans Farms created the Purple Heroes program, an initiative to support children of military families to connect with other campers of similar hardships and experiences. The Purple Heroes program, while serving the military community, also helps bring the Bob Evans Farms brand to the attention of consumers in a new way and enters peoples’ lives in a meaningful and impactful way.
3. Provoke a Different Side of Your Consumers’ Emotions
The ideal way to maintain your audience’s attention is to make them feel emotionally connected to your brand. Unfortunately, audiences have become numb to direct and overly promotional marketing strategies. Establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with a nonprofit organization is an excellent opportunity to engage your audience through a different mode of persuasion.
Bob Evans Farms formed a relationship with Operation Purple to heighten awareness and compassion for the struggles military families often face, as well as to increase consumer patriotism and duty to support those fighting for our country. Instead of tapping into consumer desires to enhance their meals with Bob Evans Farms’ products, through Purple Heroes, consumers were able to align Bob Evans Farms with inspiration and support those in need.
