It’s no secret that recruitment and retention of talented people within the non-profit sector is challenging. Staff turnover in 2023 was at 9%[1] (working with non-profits for almost 30 years, I reckon it’s much higher). I believe it has much to do with three things: 1) insufficient support 2) little opportunity for advancement and 3) overwork.

Working in a non-profit is hard. Physically, intellectually and emotionally. People who choose to work for non-profits are deeply invested. They’re about impact, and when they can’t see it, or are being held back from achieving goals, it wounds them, profoundly. I know this as I hear it all too often from students.

So, if they feel unsupported, not nurtured and overworked, it’ll result in burnout, mental health issues and ultimately, yet another resignation.

Professional development - investing in people - is a relatively easy way to address all three issues. 

Support

If you’re working within a big, functioning fundraising team, you may f...

It was 2018. I was burned out and on the verge of walking away from the business I’d built up over 23 years. I’d moved from Melbourne to a small country town in Victoria (for love and a balanced lifestyle). Let the team go, working alone for the first time in years, struggling with technology & loneliness. I hated every minute of it. The worst-case scenario – lose the business, sell the house that my husband had built with his own hands, buy a caravan and travel around Australia – was looking very appealing.

But fate had other ideas. As a last ditched attempt to try and ‘get with the technology’ program, I put a post on the local Warburton facebook page to see if there was anyone that had the skill set to create videos.

First message and enjoying Hailey’s gin cocktail

Kate Perkins AKA Perko, responded. Kate had spent 4 years as a senior relationship manager at LinkedIn and did brilliant music videos in her spare time, for fun. I suggested we have a chat – it went for 90 minutes. N...

It’s the 1950’s. The era of pointy boobs, Good Housekeeping, tv dinners, Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor.  Ford is one of the most successful car companies in the world, due to Henry Ford’s invention of the moving assembly line. In the fifties, Ford was riding the wave of the industrial revolution.

But then Ford decided to create a new car model that would fit between the Ford and Mercury brands, targeting the mid-priced automobile market. This ambitious project was named the Edsel, after Edsel Ford, the son of the company's founder.

Ford invested heavily in the development and marketing of the Edsel, allocating a substantial budget for design, production and promotion. The company aimed to make the Edsel a symbol of innovation and style, incorporating unique features and a distinctive design.

However, despite careful planning and substantial investment (US$250 million), the Edsel faced numerous challenges upon its launch in 1957. The car's unique design, including a distinctiv...

When the Barbie movie first came out, I was hesitant to go see it. Then my friends – from ages 14 – 70 - kept saying “Have you seen Barbie? It’s fantastic! It’s not what you expect!”

The Barbie movie broke 17 box office records. The biggest opening by a female director, highest grossing film by a female a director and the highest grossing movie of 2023, to name just three. Aside from the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in pink-saturated marketing and 100+ brand collaborations to create hype, why did this movie, starring a 64-year-old doll, create such a buzz?

I believe it’s got a lot to do with the brand’s willingness to listen to its customers, adapt its product to reflect consumer attitudes and evolve to remain contemporary, in demand and relevant.

Barbie launched in 1959, the brainchild of Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler, named after her daughter, Barbara. ‘Ponytail Barbie’ was influenced by 1950s movie stars, with red lips and eyeliner. Her hair came in just two colour...

Our new Conscious Consumer research (download free here) reveals that Australians are most inclined to switch brands to support a cause in the ‘everyday food items’ category. 

An excellent example of an everyday food item that’s changing the lives of sick kids, is Mum’s Sause, sold through more than 800 Coles supermarkets across Australia.

Every time customers purchase a bottle of the pasta or pizza sauce, 50c goes to the charity, Hospitals United for Sick Kids (formerly Curing Homesickness), an alliance of hospitals, foundations & paediatric services, that’s all about getting kids home from hospital and back to the things they miss. The money generated goes towards purchasing state of the art equipment, investing in ground-breaking research and funding support programs for children in hospitals across Australia. Money generated in each state through sales of Mum’s Sause, goes directly back to fund areas of greatest need prioritised by the state-based hospital.

The Mum’s Sause pro...

I have to confess, coming back to work last week after a month off, was tough. Getting going has been akin to winding up an old car! What the hell is that noise (oh, it’s the alarm). How on earth do I log onto Zoom? What’s the password for that (and that?). Not to mention, the cat isn’t happy that I’m no longer able to attend to his every whim. He keeps walking across my laptop to get my attention and……….SDSRFSGUDSYU NFIBUHJBPOMBH[PGLJJ][DTHT;J/YKHKDFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Yep, that was him!

Easing back to work after a glorious time off isn’t easy, even if you do love your work, as I do. Which is amazing given I’m 29 years in business this year. I sought advice from some amazing leaders that I follow and here are a few of their tips for getting back into the groove that I’ve embraced.

1. Motivation mix: Create a playlist of tunes that get you hyped. Spotify have a good mix. Blast in the car or with your morning cuppa to get those positive vibes flowing and shake off those
...

It’s not that I don’t like Christmas. It just doesn’t like me.

When I was little, about 8 years old, I awoke early on Christmas Day to discover the wreckage of our tree and presents (what was left of them) strewn around the lounge. At first we blamed the cats, but then realised, to our growing horror, that we’d been burgled. After the initial shock, we all got angry and my older sister pronounced that Santa wasn’t real and that reindeers didn’t eat the cookies I’d put out; she did.

This cast a dark shadow over the festive season, for sure.

Later, as my parents’ relationship crumbled, Christmas became fraught with arguments and long silences –  excruciating for a teenager searching for her identity and positive role models.

At 15 ½ , I left home and moved to central London for my first job in a PR firm. London certainly puts on a great show at Christmas, and for a few years I was swept up in the magic of it once again. The Oxford Street lights, the Selfridges window displays wit...

In Part 1, we explored some of the partnerships funded by the Marketing purse, including Brand Aligned Partnerships, Co-Branding and Cause Related Marketing. Now, we look at Sponsorship.

Sponsorship

We’re all familiar with sponsorship, we see sponsors whenever we attend a sporting event, festival or theatre.  The images above, show what is called a ‘lock up logo’, combining the corporate sponsor and sponsee together.

In the context of a corporate-cause sponsorship, the best definition is “when a company contributes financially towards a non-profit program, campaign or event”.  A sponsorship is driven by a commercial desire by the company, it’s at the opposite end of the investment spectrum from a philanthropic gift. The benefit for the sponsor is usually a marketing benefit such as exposing a company/brand name/logo to a particular audience, sampling a product, getting ‘rub off’ halo effect from the alignment, and so on. There’s always a strong brand fit between the sponsor and ...

In the past decades, there’s been growing demand for companies to take responsibility for their negative impact on society and the environment.  As a result, two concepts – and terms – were born: CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance). While these terms are often used interchangeably, it’s important to understand that they’re different.  

CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) refers to a company's voluntary practices and actions aimed at improving social and environmental conditions, beyond what is legally required. The term was coined in 1953 when American economist Howard Bowen published a book called ‘Social Responsibilities of the Businessman’. It became part of corporate language globally in the 1990s. 

There are two expressions of CSR – one is internal and the other is external, or, publicly visible. Internal activities involve ensuring that the daily operations of the company minimise harm to society and the environment and maximis...

There are distinct and different ways of partnering with a company, and therefore, an array of different terms (jargon).

If your organisation wants to partner with companies, it’s vital your Board understands the different terminology as they have funding & legal consequences. If YOU are the changemaker tasked with winning corporate partners, you must know the differences, so you can enter negotiations with authority and confidence.

Regular readers of my blog will be familiar with the 4 Purses: the four purses within a corporate, company or brand that may hold resources, expertise and cash for non-profits & social enterprises. Each purseholder has a different motivation for partnering with a non-profit or social enterprise, hence why there are so many techniques and terms. If you’re unfamiliar with the 4 Purses, download our free Infographic here, it’s a gamechanger in understanding the corporate sector.

Let’s dive into the largest and most lucrative purse, the Marketing Purse. H...