Having spent many years talking with corporate Australia about partnership opportunities, I thought I had it sorted when it comes to how to approach a meeting with a potential new partner or donor.

Recently, I had the privilege of setting up a new Foundation for Schneider Electric.  Through this process I met with more than 30 charities and it’s given me a new perspective on what works when pitching to corporates for support.

So, here’s a few of the things I learned that may help you to inspire those around you with the incredible work of your charity.

1. Tell us about why you exist and who your serve

When you’re passionate about your cause, it’s easy to assume that people know more about you than they really do.  Even more so if you have a well-known brand.  Chances are people have a whole lot of preconceived ideas about you that may or may not reflect what you really do and stand for.  So, don’t skip the basics.

2. Work as a team

If you bring more than one person, make sure that you’re singing from the same hymn sheet.  It’s ok that you each bring different areas of expertise – that’s great, in fact – but you both need to be representing the organisation, not just your part of it.  When you have a meeting with people who seem unconnected to each other, it’s hard to tell what your relationship with the organisation overall might look like.

3. Your experts are your most powerful advocates.

It’s so important to have a great partnerships manager – we do want to know that you can manage a corporate relationship effectively.   BUT we’re so much more interested in really understanding your work.  Often it’s the expert or program person who really inspired us.  Bring them along and give them air time!   This could be your CEO, or it might be one of your front-line team.  They may not be your most natural public speaker, but the authentically spoken, simply articulated truth from the coal face will speak volumes.

4. Watch for cues about what we’re most interested in

If most of our questions are addressed to your project person – that’s a good sign!  Go with it!  It means we’re really interested in the nuts and bolts of your work.  What’s not to love about that?  As a partnership manager, I’d humbly suggest that your job isn’t to do all the heavy lifting, but to enable to interaction.

5. We’re genuinely interested in what you do!!

Be specific.  It can be really challenging for big complicated charities to work out where to focus our attention.  But if you only talk in generalities it’s hard to see where and how we can best contribute to your work.

6. Listen to the brief

We don’t want to waste your time – any more than you do!  So pay attention to the brief and use it to help you work out where to focus your attention.

Tam Johnston, Schneider Electric Foundation and Community Lead.