The Business of Giving

Speaker 1 0:00
You're listening to locally produced programming created in KU NV studios on public radio K, u and v 91.5. You're listening to special programming sponsored by the cars marketing Chamber of Commerce. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents, the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Speaker 1 0:37
People live in the whole world. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the business of giving podcast. My name is Guy Dawson and I am the Executive Director of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. We are an organization that brings businesses and nonprofit organizations together to create synergistic relationships that benefit the community. And we have a host of platforms, events and processes that we use to help people be more effective in their practice of cause marketing principles. If you'd like to learn more about what the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce does, we can be reached at cause marketing chamber.com. That is our website. And of course, I'm back with Maria Perez, the cause marketing consultant, she is my co hostess. How are you? Maria?

Unknown Speaker 1:28
I'm doing great. How are you doing today? Guy?

Speaker 1 1:30
I am doing wonderful today. And there was something that I was thinking about a topic that you are intimately educated in. And I felt it was really important for our listeners to learn more about this whole sponsors chips aspect in the cause marketing world, we've had other guests that we've come on they are cause marketers and they do a lot of their cause marketing via just directly sponsoring organizations nonprofits and, and you being an expert in that area, I feel like you've got a lot of great information that you could share with the audience about sponsorship in the cause marketing world you ready to go.

Speaker 2 2:14
I'm ready to go. So I talked about this a lot. And it's one of my favorite subjects. Because I feel badly for nonprofits, that they, unfortunately are leaving money on the table because they don't understand the difference amongst three different buckets of fundraising opportunity. One bucket I call philanthropy or patronage. Right. And that's, you know, patron of the arts back in the day, you know, in the 1800s, I love this artists, I'm going to be a patron of the arts and give them money and they're going to paint something wonderful for me or create a piece of music or, or there's a cause issue. I had a you know, someone in my family that had breast cancer. So therefore I want to give money, and I want to be philanthropic. So when that happens, that's what I call philanthropy, your patronage. And the nonprofit says thank you. Then there's corporate partnering and corporate partnering is I'm having a run or a walk and I need 15,000 bottles of water is it it's a transaction, it's a line item. And in a budget for an event, perhaps the nonprofit is doing and somebody doesn't give you one bottle because that's not going to help you you're still gonna have to go buy the rest. But they give you this this in kind item that you need. And you say thank you, but sponsorship in something different sponsorship, you must deliver on audience and value. Otherwise, why does the company want to support you? They can support you other ways. philanthropically being a patron being a partner. But that's not the expectation with sponsorship. So nonprofits, you know, they're here to grow and to raise money. And to not take advantage of sponsorship is a travesty. Because if a nonprofit does have audiences, not the audience's they serve, the audiences they reach, they should monetize that that is money that can come in and then they can help more people. So I spend a lot of time as a coach as a cause coach working with nonprofits and businesses alike, to get them to understand the difference, and how valuable those audiences they reach could be for the organization. And

Speaker 1 4:27
how do you get people to understand the differences? Maria, obviously, I guess most of us have a basic understanding of what sponsorship represents. So for instance, the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce is the sponsor of the business of giving radio show and as the sponsor of the show, we're the hosts. We're putting it on to bring more exposure to the principles of cause marketing as I had mentioned earlier, as well as more recognition to the Chamber of Commerce but It's not as clear cut as that. And I guess that that's the part of your educational process that I really would want you to dig deeper into, to give people a better understanding of what these partnerships sponsorships really represent. Well,

Speaker 2 5:17
I go back to this idea of audience, if you're going to have impact, and nobody hears or sees you, nothing happens, right? The needle doesn't move. So if I'm, if I'm best friends, animal society, and I have a publication or a website, where hundreds and 1000s of people come a month, I can leverage that, to benefit my mission and fulfill my mission more effectively. But so many nonprofits have these assets, and they don't know what to do with them, or they don't realize they have value. And they confuse those whom they serve with those whom they might reach. Right. So in the case of this show, you know, we are grateful that we reach a lot of people every week, that's super powerful. So that's why we can count and spread the message of cause marketing, because we have an audience, we have people, we have these wonderful listeners out there that care about the content. And so, you know, we're able to, we're able to reach them. So that's, again, sponsorship is not advertising, because advertising is a billboard on the side of the road, or, or, you know, an advertisement in a magazine or a commercial and it you know, I can buy that anybody can buy that. But when you add the value proposition, that's when that's when the nonprofit and the best and the business can both benefit.

Speaker 1 6:50
One of the things that you talk about quite a bit on the show, Maria is the new paradigm in the cause marketing world. And that is that it is important for both sides to feel that they they truly benefit. And that's the result aspect. And so a second ago, you had talked about nonprofit organizations having something great that they want to give to the community, it's always like that, I mean, I've met hundreds of people who run nonprofit organizations. And that's a commonality. But to be able to attract someone who'd be willing to sponsor the endeavors of the nonprofit organization requires you to provide measurable value. And again, I think that that's a unique aspect of this show is that you talk about that a lot. And could you elaborate more on that? Yeah, you probably,

Speaker 2 7:47
let me give a really good example. So this town has lots of conventions and conferences and associations, that that come here, right. And I remember the Western veterinary conference, it's called something different now. But I attended the conference at the Mandalay Bay. And I remember seeing a sponsor their animal health, have a comp have a concert, just to get 200 veterinarians in the room, and they spent hundreds and 1000s of dollars brought in a talent. So you know, if a nonprofit and do that in some capacity, you know, get 200 lawyers in a room or, you know, some special audience that a brand or business is trying to attract or add value. To initiate trial with a with an onside activation. Maybe they have a viewing party, and people buy beer and pizza. You know, it's a it's a two way street, right? It's not your origin story that makes the makes the sponsorship happen. That's not what does it. It's not I do great work, you should give me money. That's the big mistake. It's how do we partner for a win win, so that the nonprofit can you know, create awareness, raise funds, and and the supporter can reach an audience they want to reach? It's as simple as that it is not rocket science.

Speaker 1 9:14
And on the for profit side, Maria, if a company is looking for a good nonprofit that they want to support, where the value is truly being created, where you're, they're going to really get involved in a win win situation. What are some of the things that you suggest for that business, in that type of a partnership becoming a sponsor for a nonprofit?

Speaker 2 9:37
I mean, it depends what the objectives again, on the on the business side, do they want to be philanthropic? Do they want to be a patron you know, do they have a family member that with that disease state and so they just want to give money because they they want to or or maybe they don't have the means to do so. So they can give products, but if they want to initiate trial if they want to drive business, and they're is a way to succeed in partnership in doing that. That's true cause marketing. And then, you know, there's the earned media value and the bragging rights, which is commonly referred to as the halo effect. But that's not a negative, that's walking the walk and talking the talk. We did this aren't you know, our employees volunteered, because they wanted to because they want to give back. So again, it's really a 365 paradigm that you you can create. And it doesn't matter which bucket you choose, everybody wins. But I try to get people, nonprofits in particular, to understand that if they have something of value, not to leave money on the table, because what they're doing is they're not able to further their mission without funding. And this is a really good strategy to accomplish that.

Speaker 1 10:49
The abundance mindset in the nonprofit world is a big emphasis of less over at the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. And I know for you as well, Maria, it's really getting, as you had mentioned, there, there's money out there for nonprofits that are providing value, not only in the services that they provide, but also in the mindset and the way that they approach developing their business. And that the thinking, really an alteration in the thinking of a lot of people that get into the nonprofit world is, hey, create a great partnership with a successful business. Now, there's abundance on both sides. You both can feel really proud. We talk a lot about the win win situation on this podcast as well. Everyone feels good, the nonprofit feels fulfilled in being able to provide the service they've got the sponsor that also feels fulfilled because they believe in what the nonprofit's all about. And there's also the financial abundance that comes with that type of synergy.

Speaker 2 12:00
Well, your sponsorship, there's a slide that I use in when I'm coaching folks, whether they're nonprofits or for profit businesses, and sponsorship, people sponsor businesses sponsor, I mean, if you cut it down to brass tacks, for lead generation, thought leadership, awareness, you know, there are business reasons on both sides of the of the part, the both both for both parties that are super important. And so, you know, it's just a matter of creating activations that fulfill those business promises. And then you there's no downside.

Speaker 1 12:37
We appreciate you for tuning in to the business of giving podcast sponsored by the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, and I am here speaking with Maria Perez, the cause marketing consultant, and we're talking about all things related to sponsorship in the cause marketing world. And boy, the Chamber itself, Maria, we've had the privilege of being sponsored by many organizations with the events and things that we've put on throughout the years. And one of the things that we feel how we feel the most fulfilled, is when we hear about the great result that we produced as a result of having a person come and sponsor at businesses with heart, by the way, which is our event, it's coming up on the 14th of September the 14th. I'll talk about that a little bit more later. But the for us when we hear about a business that succeeded as a direct result of participating in an event that we put on, or that we created some great partnership that ended up leading to success. We embrace that. And is there a way to teach that to the nonprofits? We also express a lot of gratitude. By the way, it's also a really big part of our platform. But

Speaker 2 14:01
yeah, I actually, I run a workshop for nonprofits and for profits called 365 sponsorship experience, we have a one on one version and an advanced version for because people, people crawl down the hole, and they forget how to do it. Or they chase their tail because it overwhelms them. But yeah, I mean, it's just a matter of doing an analysis of what programming Do you have, what events do you have, what assets and properties do you have? And then identify whom? Who is a good partner for this? I mean, we just had a guest on our previous show, Camila Duran publishers of Red Rock City lifestyle, and, and she talked about that very thing. So So yeah, it's just being able to deliver on value and promise. And yes, it can be taught. It's really just looking at what assets have properties you have? And then how to join forces.

Speaker 1 15:05
And on the for profit side, Maria, how do you manage work or teach the for profit businesses? How to manage their expectations? How? How do you measure the expect, you know what I mean measure the result that's being delivered through the relationship, nonprofit.

Speaker 2 15:26
So, so I had this conversation all the time. And you know, this as a PR professional, there's something called media monitoring, you need metrics. If you if you have the means and the financial wherewithal to set some budget aside to measure your impact, then you can report it on it. And that's a benchmark for year two. So I'll never forget I had an event with a nonprofit here in town. And fortunately, the CEO was gracious enough to hire a PR firm, to measure the impact of this particular activation at a at a very highly trafficked mall here in town. And the PR firm also did earned media. And in year one, we got $0. But in year two, we were able to say that if you are a sponsor of this event, you could receive 148 million impressions. Now, that's very powerful to a brand, or a service or a company. And sure enough, people took out their checkbooks, and they fostered the nonprofit exhibit, it was an exhibit, there was no activation, that's not a lot of interaction. But because the nonprofit had the savvy to measure what they could deliver, and in the subsequent years, people supported it. Yeah,

Speaker 1 16:43
that really broadens the scope of this Maria is is for people to understand that measuring success can be different as I had mentioned before, we've had sponsors at events that we've done, who've directly gotten sales as being a part of because they were a part of an event that we hosted, or they made a great partnership. But it doesn't always work out like that. When you were speaking about metrics. Yes, me on the PR side, you cannot underestimate the importance of things such as impressions. And BC,

Speaker 2 17:16
sponsorship, if you call it sponsorship, you should be able to deliver on, you should be able to fulfill on promise. You have to deliver on promise otherwise, technically you owe the money. Otherwise, just take the money and say thank you for your donation.

Speaker 1 17:32
Right, which is, of course, as you had mentioned before, are completely different than sponsorship. Right? I mean, donations have their space, they have their place, obviously, in the nonprofit world. But sponsorship is a completely different animal altogether.

Speaker 2 17:48
You have to deliver on value, and you have to deliver on audience because I could go by the billboard. So therefore, what I'm trying to explain is you have to deliver the audience's that you're going to have in the room. And then you have to give them a better price. Otherwise, they don't need you. Why would they partner with you? And

Speaker 1 18:06
I know you've done extensive work with nonprofits throughout the years. Maria, will you share a successful sponsorship campaign that really stood out from the others? Or maybe a couple of them? And I mean, I'm sure you have plenty of stories that you can share about how sponsorship has worked out exceedingly? Well. I know you've again, you've already done this in the show today,

Speaker 2 18:29
I have one of my favorite stories. So years ago I was at I was representing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And they their job was to reach at risk young males 18 to 34 that were killing people. And they were killing people because they were driving without seatbelts or they were drinking and driving or driving recklessly. And now we have texting and driving. And NASCAR told them Oh, sure, you know, we can build awareness for your campaigns that that will be many millions of dollars. And they said no, thank you. And I took them IndyCar racing. And now you have to consider that the audience at the time that's in the heyday there, you know, that hundreds and 1000s of fans, and that's where those at risk young men were. And so one day I was walking past the ford motor home and they had these beautiful collectible posters. Ford has, you know, very big firm, they company. These beautiful posters. I mean, they must be four or $5 each. But I noticed they were blank on the back. I'm like, oh, that's real estate. And I basically said to the guy that ran the motorhome Hey, Sam's and Sam Scott said, Hey, Sam, can I have that? Needless to say needless to say NCPC, which is a National Crime Prevention Council and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. We put all kinds of traffic safety message is on the back, like how to put your kid in a child's safety seat and wear your seatbelt don't drink and drive and 6 million posters later. The message got out there. So that's one of my one of my favorite campaign success stories. And that was a sponsorship, because those posters and why that was a sponsorship is that we had the audience, we've got the audience exposure that they needed, and those posters at that amount of money per unit. No one could have ever afforded that, except for someone like the Ford Motor Company. So everybody one, yeah, that's

Speaker 1 20:36
the creativity when you're working with someone who is in the marketing world. And you, you, you, you're thinking in a different everything counts, right, Maria? I mean, when you're here, remarquer,

Speaker 2 20:51
the one. Here's the one rub. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is a government agency, and they regulate the automotive industry. And the only way this partnership happened is that there was a nonprofit intermediary, or couldn't have happened. You can't sit next to the people you regulate. It's kind of a little bit, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, right? It could be misconstrued. So again, these partnerships are about seeing how everybody can dovetail and work together to achieve the desired outcomes.

Speaker 1 21:23
Yeah, speaking of opportunities to participate in things in the cause marketing world, we're going to be hosting businesses with heart, the expo is going to be on September the 14th, from 4pm to 8pm. At the space, this is an event that we started hosting back in 2015, at the College of Southern Nevada, and we had no idea at that time that years later that we will be continuing to present this event. It is a community oriented business and nonprofit event. There's lots of opportunities to meet people who are in business, we have a featured nonprofit organization, by the way, that is called real room Redux. And room Readex does amazing things in the rooms of children who are abused. For a lot of children, they're still living in the home where they received abuse. And what room Readex does is they go into the rooms and completely refurbish them replace beds and paint into so many things to create a different dynamic within the room of of the abuse child. So a wonderful nonprofit organization proceeds from this event will be going to that nonprofit, great food, you're going to be wonderful do gooder people in the business community. And so for more information about that we can be reached at cause marketing chamber.com if you'd be interested in attending, of course, there will be people there who will be sponsoring us. And if you are interested in that we can be reached at cause marketing chamber.com. Join us for businesses with heart, the 10th edition, it will be on September the 14th from 4pm to 8pm. At the space for those of you who might have been to After Dark, which is a Gu Oh, great. Monday's dark, excuse me. That's a great event that the space a host on a regular basis. They're doing a wonderful things in the nonprofit world. And we're looking forward to hosting our first event there. And I've been speaking with Maria Perez, the cause marketing consultant about things related to sponsorship and how to really understand the the impact of these, these partnerships, Maria, and how the good work that you want to do as a nonprofit is directly sometimes connected with these relationships that you create with businesses. And when we created this chamber itself, it really was all about these marriages and marriages of sorts that you talk about here. And and then just working well for both sides. Yeah,

Speaker 2 24:06
I mean, all of those funding strategies are completely legitimate and should be in your bag of tricks. But again, I I think that nonprofits care there, they have a desire to grow and serve more people. And certainly sponsorship is an opportunity to do that.

Speaker 1 24:28
Yes. And, boy, you've got organizations out there that just exemplify and we've had several of them as you had. You had mentioned earlier, Maria that have been guests on the show, and they just exemplify what a great sponsor is in terms of you can just feel the heart in the work, right, Maria? I mean, just us interviewing them. Steven Amelie was excellent guests that we had a couple of weeks ago. Very Very knowledgeable man who's a part of a great business solo oriented business here in town. I could see that guy being an excellent sponsor, just because when you listen to the way that he talks about wanting to give back to his community, you can feel how genuine who he is. Right? Nothing

Speaker 2 25:19
disingenuous about that, about that organization, everything that is built into the DNA of their company, everything they do, exudes, and amplifies. And not not for bragging rights, but just being genuine, that they feel that this is their, I believe his words, exact word for living a life of gratitude. And they walk the walk and talk to talk though the name of the firm is soul up. They're wonderful people. Yes,

Speaker 1 25:50
and when you exude that, and that's why I know for me, Maria, even before I really got into the cause marketing world, and I was just working with clients, on the PR side recommending that, that they partner up with nonprofit organizations. One of the things that I always coached them to do is make sure that you connect with a nonprofit that you truly believe in, do some research take the time to see why this partnership will work well for your business, because it truly you exude it, never underestimate the power of the energy that you project in being in support of a nonprofit organization. And it has a direct impact, as you had talked about Maria on you being seen as the company that truly believes in this and and people will see it. They may not tell you directly, but they know they know better, right?

Speaker 2 26:45
Yeah, yeah, you have to in this day and age, you can't just purport to support a nonprofit. It doesn't. This generation doesn't accept that. You You have to, you have to do the work. And you have to be, you have to be able to, to prove it.

Speaker 1 27:05
Do good for the right reasons. And again, I can share my own personal testimonies, I could take up a whole show about experiences in my own business, that how becoming a part of this world has been unbelievably fulfilling and helpful on my for profit business. So I mean, maybe one of these days I'll share some of my own testimonials. I don't really get into that a lot, because I'm the representative of this organization. And of course, we've gotten Maria here who really, really, really engages in this work, but I can truly tell you, that being someone who's seen as doing good in your community, absolutely will improve your bottom line, but always always be genuine in your approach. And Maria, the cause marketing consultant, of course, once again, great information that you had for the audience. How can you be reached at every website that you can be reached at for more information?

Speaker 2 28:02
If you if you care to discuss cause marketing strategy with me, Coach Maria, you can reach me at Maria at cause marketing consultant.com

Speaker 1 28:11
Yes, boy, it's always good when you have a guide someone to hold your hand as you're learning when you're in territory that you're not familiar with. And just Maria, just again, always appreciate how you are holding people's hands, literally, as my co host of this, of this show, sharing information that is so valuable for them as they get out into this cause marketing world. There's so much good to be done out there. And you're an excellent facilitator of this. Good. Well, thank you guys. All right, and then again, we always appreciate you for tuning in to the business of giving podcast. For more information about the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, we can be reached at cause marketing chamber.com also on our social media platforms, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and as well as I've been mentioning, the last couple of podcasts. We have a new YouTube channel for the business of giving podcast, more information about that vehicle coming up soon and so for all of those of you out there who like to do good continue to do so. Give and do business for good. See you on the next show

Unknown Speaker 29:35
whereas

Speaker 3 29:42
the weight of the world on my shoulder as I'm getting older your people gets older. Most of us only care about money.

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