If you’re a chamber pro, you’ve undoubtedly been asked at least one of the following questions by nonprofits in your community:
- Do you have nonprofit member pricing?
- Is membership free for nonprofits?
- Can you send over some volunteers?
- Will you buy a ticket for our event?
- Can our ED attend Leadership (or an event, seminar, expo, etc.) for free?
If you’re like most chambers, there’s no way you can comp them all, discount their dues, and send them all of your volunteers. But there’s a whole world of creative, mutually beneficial collaborations waiting to be explored.
These partnerships can go far beyond just financial contributions, allowing both organizations to leverage their unique strengths and resources for greater community impact.
5 Mutually-Beneficial Ways for Chambers and Nonprofits to Help Each Other
1. Shared Marketing Power
You both have a target market and reach within the community. Some of that may overlap but some may be new. Regardless of what the nonprofit (and its cause) is, it probably has spent some time building relationships with businesses in the community.
The Idea: Combine your marketing efforts to reach a wider audience and amplify your message through:
- Co-creating a social media campaign that showcases your missions.
- Featuring each other in newsletters and email blasts.
- Co-hosting webinars or workshops on topics relevant to your audiences.
- Cross-promoting events and programs.
2. Resource Sharing
You might be surprised how many things you can help one another with if you give it some creative thought.
The Idea: Share expertise, facilities, or tools to maximize your impact and minimize costs such as:
- Offering your event or meeting space for a nonprofit gathering or workshop. They may not have a business-appropriate space.
- Allowing nonprofits to tap into your chamber’s marketing or PR expertise. You could host a monthly “ask me anything” session with your marketing brain trust.
- Host joint training sessions for staff and volunteers. There’s a lot of skills overlap, things that could benefit both of you like learning how to forge relationships, engage your audience, and woo sponsors. If you bring in an expert, maybe you could split the cost.
- Share software or technology resources (if feasible).
Additionally, if your chamber has a foundation you could provide grants to local nonprofits to support mission-related initiatives. They may be in a better place and have things set up to advance the work you want to do. Why create something to advance your mission if there’s already something in place and your goals could be attained more efficiently through partnership than competition?
3. Cross-Promotion
The Idea: Promote each other’s work, events, and programs to your respective audiences, expanding reach and visibility. Share how the nonprofit fits into the chamber’s story (if it does). Help your audience understand how there’s a symbiotic relationship in the community. Ideas:
- Include information about the nonprofit’s mission and programs in your chamber’s communications.
- Feature chamber members in the nonprofit’s newsletter or on their website.
- Offer discounts or incentives to each other’s members or donors.
- Co-host networking events that bring together members from both organizations.
4. Volunteer Synergies
The Idea: Collaborate on volunteer opportunities that benefit both your missions and the community.
- Organize joint volunteer projects that leverage chamber members’ and nonprofit volunteers’ skills and interests. Look for quirky connections that can be fun to explore.
- Promote volunteer opportunities through each other’s channels.
- Recognize and celebrate volunteers from both organizations.
- Publish the nonprofits’ volunteer needs in your newsletter.
5. Advocacy Amplified
The Idea: Join forces to advocate for policies or initiatives that benefit both your members and the community. If you have a shared concern, you can join forces for a louder, more cohesive voice by:
- Developing joint advocacy campaigns on issues of common interest. For instance, if resiliency and sustainability are part of your chamber’s initiatives, consider joining efforts with a local nonprofit that shares your concerns and can help educate your members on the importance of those things in business. (There are examples of how that’s worked in the next section.)
- Co-hosting informational sessions or forums for local officials and attending in-person meetings together like city council meetings.
- Sharing data and research to strengthen your advocacy efforts.
Chamber and Nonprofit Partnership Examples
While partnerships sound great, how do they work in the real world? And how do you partner with one nonprofit over another? Very carefully. After all, you don’t want to appear to be supportive of one group but not another. As in the examples below, it’s best to work with an organization that can help you advance the clear mission of your chamber.
- The Greater Gainesville Chamber in Florida partners with local nonprofits to offer leadership training programs to emerging leaders.
- The Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce in New Mexico collaborates with nonprofits to host job fairs and workforce development initiatives.
- The Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce joined forces with the local nonprofit “Partners in Education” to bridge the gap between Santa Maria businesses and students seeking real-world career experience.
- The Hampton Roads Shared Services Alliance is a funded program of the Hampton Roads Chamber Foundation designed to help further its mission to make quality childcare affordable.
- United Way of Central Georgia’s community revitalization efforts were hindered by a lack of sustainable funding for a dedicated staff member. Recognizing the potential of the Forward Macon initiative, community leaders approached the Macon Chamber to propose a collaborative solution. This partnership would secure funding for both a community engagement project manager at United Way and a community grant program administered by the Community Foundation of Central Georgia. Thus, a powerful alliance was formed.
Chambers and nonprofits can achieve far more together than they ever could alone. By thinking outside the donation box and embracing creative collaborations, you can create a powerful force for good in your community.
Let’s get those creative juices flowing! Do you have any other ideas for how chambers and nonprofits can partner for greater impact? Share them in the comments!
