Referral Partners

One of the easiest ways to create valuable partnerships is low intensity partnerships for referrals to expand the visibility and numbers of clients for your nonprofit.

1.??? Community Outreach

Accept and create opportunities to speak at community groups to your niche audience. Topics can be generally related and not simply an advertisement. Lily Lake Nursing Home directors offer free seminars at Senior Centers on Technology. They stay afterwards to answer questions, and the nursing home topics inevitably arise. The seminars establish your expertise and create trust. Remember that perceptions convince people more than facts. You are selling trust in these meetings.

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What does your partner receive? A high-quality presentation for their meeting and increased reputation because your brand value now complements theirs.

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2.??? Partnerships with Government Agencies

Collaborate with appropriate local government social services agencies that provide services to underserved populations. Interview the director to discover the niche of people who they turn away. They usually get many requests that they cannot fulfill. Target services that you offer where these agencies can refer individuals.

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What does your partner receive? An easy way without embarrassment to refer clients quickly that they do not serve.

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3.??? Other nonprofit service providers

Port Crane Afterschool partners with Lily Lake Pediatric Clinic, Binghamton Foster Care, and Windsor Test Prep. All these nonprofits work with the same niche of children under age 16. None of the other providers offer afterschool services so they are happy to set up a referral system. Port Crane Afterschool hosts a quarterly lunch which motivates others to keep the referrals going.

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4.??? Religious Organizations

Interview religious leaders to see which leaders are comfortable with the core values and mission of your agency. Religion is in a state of flux so don’t waste time on those who don’t like your agency or those who like the agency but are small and with few possibilities to refer. Sanitaria Springs Senior Center sponsors cake and coffee events at religious groups which is highly appreciated for those on a tight budget. The event can be a topical seminar or simply an introduction to services that people may not know about.

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What does your partner receive? A high-quality presentation and free food for its clients.

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5.??? Rejected clients from other nonprofits

Binghamton Afterschool Center offers the same after school services as five other providers.? The intellectual property of the Afterschool Center is knowledge and experience with autism. Furthermore, they have a state grant to cover the cost. Even though the service is similar and to the same general client group of children, the other centers don’t have the expertise and are happy to partner. Since the Afterschool Center also accepts students without autism, the high-quality services attract other students as the agency grows.

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6.??? Business Partnerships

Establish partnerships with local businesses. Maria is Executive Director at Windsor Summer Academics. She identifies five local businesses where she met the owner to ask for a kiosk in the store to advertise the Academic Center. She offers each owner one free scholarship for the child of an employee. It’s very popular and other businesses ask if they can also join. Maria is supporting the partner while they advertise her work.

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What does your partner receive? A high-quality employee benefit for which the partner does not have to pay!

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7.??? Niche identity groups

There are eight recognized identity groups – race or culture, nationality status, gender identity, age, ability status, socio-economic class, sexual orientation, and religion/spirituality. These identities draw people together who may be diverse in every other way. A Spanish speaking group may include people of every age. Maria sponsors After School tables at events where Spanish is common. While many people are there who are not potential clients, the potential clients who are there are overjoyed. She has aligned her agency with a basic life identity, and this is very important to her clients at the event.

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8.??? Partner Artifacts

What artifacts can you create which point to your website and are easy for your partners to distribute? Binghamton Pediatric Clinic branded temperature strips for their referral partner to hand out in November when flu season starts. The branding has a logo, name, and website. Parents and business partners appreciate it and the artifact itself reminds parents of the type of nonprofit.

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Remember to always buy artifacts that only relate to your nonprofit. Artifacts need a secular bond which reminds clients of the type of nonprofit. Narong’s Health Clinic bought toy pigs to brand and give to business partners for distribution. The connection between the clinic and the toy pig was quickly lost. Artifacts that don’t point to your type of service fail. They have no secular bond. ?

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9.??? Online site referrals

Facebook and LinkedIn are very good sources for referrals. LinkedIn is a site where your other partners will search for you to see if you know who they know. Jerry’s College Prep nonprofit attempted to get referral partners. They looked him up on LinkedIn and noticed that his agency was not connected to the College Access Consortium or other agencies that support college prep efforts. The lack of a healthy presence on LinkedIn damaged potential referral partnerships. Facebook is a substitute for your agency website, so people have a better chance of finding information.

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Create a page on your website for alternative places to get services like yours. While this page will get very little attention, the search engines will notice. They assume that all links to a site show a partnership that may not actually exist. When someone searches for another agency with the same services, Google and other search engines will also suggest you.

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10. Referral Maintenance

Keep a formal list of referral partners and refresh the relationship monthly. Referral partnerships are the weakest of any partnership. The owner of a business may be quite friendly, but the staff don’t notice or care when your brochure rack in the drugstore is empty. It may even be moved for a display of impulse merchandise as people check out.

In an age where communication is so easy, it’s very difficult for your agency to rise above the noise. When you get a referral partner, you are taking advantage of a channel that they have already made. In addition, they have established trust with their clients. They are loaning that trust to you. It creates good perceptions of your agency. People make decisions on perceptions instead of facts.

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What activities refresh the relationship? Have an ‘employee partners of the month’ page on your website. Highlight helpful employees from partner companies and mention the company with a link. No cost to you and strengthens the feelings together!

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I’m Ronald Tompkins, Managing Coach for TurnAround Nonprofit and Executive Coaching. More information is on my website at TAConsulting.live. Many leaders need team coaching to support them as they lead and change their nonprofit. If you watch this as a board member, ask your Executive Director to involve the Board and team in coaching. You can contact me for Team Coaching at 646 824 4647.

Thanks for joining me today and I’ll watch for you next week!

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? Copyright TurnAround Executive Coaching LLC 2024?????? [email protected]?????????? 646 824 4647

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