here - Tamarack CCI

Step 6: Make the Approach
There are many alternatives for how to proceed with your business
recruitment activity. If your relationships with business are already
strong, it may not be necessary to go through a formal process of
recruitment. A few conversations with trusted colleagues may suffice.
But if more is required to recruit the right people, or if your
collaboration wants to maximize the value added that business can
bring, you may find the following steps helpful.
Develop a List of Prospects
The best way to begin is to develop a list of businesses, business associations, or business people
who are already associated with your organization or collaboration. These may be people who
are known to your staff, who sit on your board(s), who provide professional services (auditors,
lawyers, insurance brokers etc.) or who are simply friends or relatives of your associates.
If the list of current contacts needs supplementing, it
may be helpful to approach other organizations that
have strong contacts or information. Business
associations, for example, may be prepared to offer
names of companies that seem to be a good fit for
you. Foundations and United Way organizations
often have a good sense of which companies would
be good to approach. You may even wish to hire a
consultant to do some prospect identification for
you.
Evaluate the Prospects on the List
“A stranger asking a stranger for a
contribution most often leads to small
contributions and most often one time.
A new acquaintance asking for a gift
leads to a few more gifts of slightly
larger size but likely one time and
strains the relationship.
A good friend asks for help and almost
always receives it – both parties feel
very positive.”
~ Wayne Hussey
You will want to ensure that you are using your recruiting time and resources wisely. To do that,
you will want to carefully evaluate each prospect to ensure they are a good fit for you. Some of
the criteria that you may want to consider are listed below. A company does not need to meet
every criterion to be on the list, but it should meet most of them.
Will the company help you reach your social transformation objectives? In Step 2, you
developed a clear understanding of how the business sector can add value to your initiative.
That should be of help to you here.
Are the company’s products and/or services geared toward the same audiences your
coalition wants to reach? Businesses may be more interested in working with your coalition
if they know that the families you want to reach are also their customers or employees.
Collaborating with Business for Social Transformation
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