Using ABM to help nonprofits grow with corporate support
Anne Gynn, an ABM for Good volunteer, sat recently with President and Co-founder Rob Leavitt to get a primer on the organization and understand how this long-proven strategy can be applied successfully to the nonprofit world.
Q: What is ABM for Good?
ROB: The short answer is that we’re an organization dedicated to bringing Account-Based Marketing (that’s the “ABM”) into the nonprofit world to help organizations build more sustainable sources of funding and partnerships. But to understand what we do, you first need to understand what ABM is and how it works in the business world.
Photo by Nathan Lemon on Unsplash
ABM is a long-proven business strategy that helps companies increase revenue, improve their reputation, and build more trusted, strategic relationships with their most important clients and prospects. It took off in the early 2000s with big tech and professional services firms and has become pervasive in recent years with large companies that sell to other large companies.
For many companies, a relatively small number of clients or customers account for a large majority of revenue and profit. And these accounts are often essential to the business even beyond the revenue: They provide your best references and referrals; they’re your best collaborators on new ideas and approaches; and they share the most helpful insight into what’s happening in the market.
You invest heavily in these accounts because they are a key driver for overall growth and innovation. You study them closely to make sure you know their specific issues and challenges. And you operate with a bit of an all-hands-on-deck approach to craft the right value proposition and approach them in the right way, at the right time, with the right offer.
ABM for Good is bringing this approach to organizations working “for good.” We’re adapting ABM principles and practices and bringing our expertise and experience to help nonprofits build deeper relationships with their most important sponsors, funders, and partners.
Q: Where did the ABM for Good idea come from?
ROB: Over the last 20+ years, I’ve worked as a consultant to help dozens of companies develop and improve ABM programs that have grown into key revenue producers for their organizations. I’ve trained hundreds of marketers to lead and support ABM programs, analyzed what does and doesn’t work, and spoken on more “expert” panels and webinars than I can remember.
A few years ago, as I started thinking about winding down my career and spending more time giving back to my community, I began thinking about different ways to help. I had started my career in the nonprofit world and wanted to get back to that kind of mission-driven work.
Photo by Centre for Ageing Better on Unsplash
Helping organizations with their marketing certainly made sense. I could utilize my knowledge and skills and not just donate my time. But could ABM itself work in a nonprofit environment?
As I talked with more folks the idea seemed to resonate. With several interested colleagues (now my board members), I began to think about something more formal. Could we bring together like-minded leaders to build an organization that helps nonprofits use ABM to advance their mission and organization?
Q: As you say, ABM is well-proven in the corporate world? How can it work for nonprofits?
ROB: Most nonprofits rely primarily on one or two types of fundraising. The majority focus mostly on individual donations (large and small) while others look more toward charitable foundations, government agencies, or fees for service. Some solicit corporate support but it rarely provides a substantial share of nonprofit funding.
At the same time, many nonprofits tend rely on undifferentiated requests for support. They emphasize the importance of the cause and the great work that they do. For companies, they may offer sponsorship packages, brand recognition, and employee volunteer days. But less often do they dig into the research to identify the best-fit corporate supporters and craft personalized pitches tuned to a specific funder’s priorities and requirements.
To strengthen existing efforts, ABM can take the same research-based, customized, relationship-driven approach that has worked so well in business and apply it to nonprofit fundraising and development, especially for high-value, long-term supporters.
With ABM, we can identify the highest-potential donors and partners based on their specific interests, history, funding capacity, and decision makers. We can map out the best ways to connect with the right people, the most compelling opportunities for their support, and the best ways to nurture and sustain relationships for the longer term. And, perhaps most important, we can bring in the best tools, templates, and structured process to do this consistently over time.
With an ABM approach in place, nonprofits can streamline their work and create more efficient and effective programs to develop larger, more strategic sponsorships and partnerships built on trust, collaboration, and clearly defined value for both parties.
Q. Why now?
Our timing has been interesting. Just as we launched in early 2025, nonprofits seem to have entered a more challenging time for maintaining support for their work. Many are losing government funding and many have seen other traditional funders take a step back and become more cautious with their giving.
Photo by Precious Plastic Melbourne on Unsplash
It's become an especially unsettled time for nonprofit development teams. They are working harder just to maintain existing levels of funding even as they try to ramp up their search for new sources of support.
As such, while nonprofit leaders look to refocus their limited time and resources on the most promising approaches, we’re even more confident that ABM can provide a fresh but well-developed and proven approach to strengthen those efforts.
Want to learn more?
Whether you’re exploring new partnership strategies, looking to strengthen existing relationships, or simply curious about ABM for nonprofits, we’d love to talk.