Business Development & Corporate Sponsorship Advice

We are seeking a skilled and experienced business development professional to provide training, guidance and mentorship to the person handling our corporate fundraising for our nonprofit organization focused on green urban communities. We are a new organization, and while the person has experience in business sales, they want to translate that into nonprofit fundraising.

Our primary mission is to help create vibrant green urban communities by supporting and connecting small businesses. We are in our 3rd year and want to launch a new program and continue to support our public engagement programs. Securing funding is imperative to sustain and grow our organization, hire staff, and be able to provide a prevailing wage for these positions. Corporate partnerships offer a significant opportunity to help us scale while providing free resources to underserved people.

We have already established several connections to local and regional businesses and important partnerships with the city, including tourism agencies and local universities like Clemson and Furman. We are aware of operations with other types of organizations (i.e. banks having budgets for sponsorship and giving, CSR budgets, B-corp-certified businesses needing to donate to charities etc.) but aren't sure how to tap into these opportunities. This project will involve brainstorming fundraising & business development strategies such as an earned income strategy, corporate sponsorships, etc.