Activating Your Organization’s Partners
Because events happen in a live and dynamic space, you can utilize them to activate your organization’s sponsors and partners in engaging ways that make them known and give them unique opportunities to be a part of your mission.
Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives utilizes this idea at their annual gala which takes place as a Dancing with the Stars-type event. They pair partners of their organization with professional dancers from their event sponsor Fred Astaire Dance Studio. These pairs practice their featured dance before the event, and then are the stars of the show at the event when they perform it in front of the gala crowd as a competition.
There are also judges for the competition that afford PCRI the opportunity to bring more partners to the table and offer them another role than dancing. The judges offer commentary throughout the competition and then crown a winner.
What’s great about this format, is that PCRI takes the partners that work with them on their mission of helping low-income Portland families and individuals achieve stability and self-sufficiency, and they turn those partners into celebrities within the framework of the event. The introductions of the dancers and judges highlight their role in the work of PCRI and make their support known to the bigger donor base.
It allows PCRI to be strategic in their outreach to bring in celebrities that match their mission and highlight aspects of their work that they’re seeking to elevate in the stories of the event from year to year. In addition, those partners bring in their support base to see them in the competition and further widen the supporter circle for PCRI.
It’s a great way to engage those who are already a part of their organization, and lean on those dancers to help engage guests to be a part of the event and connect to the organization’s work. It builds a natural acquisition stream.
The format is unique in the Portland market and elevates the profile of the event.
photos by Brit Forbes
