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How to identify your 5-star prospects

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October 16, 2025

How to identify your 5-star prospects

Written by Jonathan Andrews.

This is a blog about what works. When Learning with Parents identified their 5-star prospects, IG Group was top of their list. Within two years they secured a three-year partnership worth £750k.

When you want to build corporate partnerships, it seems logical that you need a long prospect list. After all, the more prospects the better, right? Wrong! Our experience shows that long prospect lists make corporate fundraisers lose focus, feel overwhelmed and struggle to deliver results.

We recommend you have a short list of target corporate prospects. Approximately 10 per corporate fundraiser is a good number. So how do you decide which corporate prospects go on your list? We recommend you identify your 5-star prospects as described below:

Shared purpose

The first feature of your ideal corporate prospects is shared purpose. This means that when look at the company’s mission and your charity’s mission you can that there is some common ground. IG Group and Learning with Parents have a very strong shared purpose, because they both know that financial literacy helps people fulfil their potential.

Focusing on prospects where you have a shared purpose not only increases your chances of securing them, but it also means you will create more ambitious partnerships. That’s because the partnership is built on your shared WHY. As Simon Sinek says, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

2. Contact at the company

When I started my career in corporate fundraising 25 years ago, people used to say that corporate fundraising success depends on who you know. And it is still true today. The CEO at Learning with Parents has a contact at IG Group. They met when they were on an interview panel together. This contact meant it was really straight forward to secure the first meeting.

The reason why contacts are so important can be explained by behavioural science. The Law of Liking says that we are much more likely to do business with someone that we like and trust.

3. Problem you can help solve

When you approach a company for a partnership it’s important to understand that they will have one question on their mind, “What’s in it for me?” If you can’t answer this question convincingly then it is highly unlikely that they will want to partner with you.

Learning with Parents has considerable value to offer IG Group because they have a strong shared purpose. This means the charity can help the company engage their employees and raise their profile with target customers, by highlighting their unique and inspirational purpose.

4. Resource to help solve your problems

The fourth feature of your ideal prospect is to make sure that the company has sufficient resources to help solve your problems. IG Group has considerable value to offer Learning with Parents. They are making a long-term financial contribution, raising the charity’s profile and they have valuable clients to whom they could make introductions. In fact, this partnership is game-changing for Learning with Parents.

When you think about a company’s resources it’s vital that you see all the value they have to offer, not just money. This is because companies don’t want to be seen as just bank accounts. They want genuine partnerships built on shared purpose. In fact, some of the most successful corporate-charity partnerships have started with non-financial support.

5. Realistic chance of success

The fifth feature of an ideal corporate prospect is they are realistic. When you think of your ideal partners it is very tempting to write down high profile companies such as HSBC, Microsoft, and Tesco. But the queue of charities wanting to partner with these companies is very long. So, we recommend you take a different approach and look for companies that are less well known. They can be harder to find, but you could be the only charity who is approaching them.

IG Group was a realistic prospect for Learning with Parents for three reasons: they had a contact; a strong shared purpose, and the company isn’t a household name.

We hope this blog inspires you to find your own 5-star prospects. It’s a great way to strengthen and refresh your new business pipeline. It will help you build more ambitious corporate partnerships. And it works!

If you want to have a conversation about how we can help you find your 5-star prospects, then you can book a 30-minute call with Jonathan using this link: https://meetings.hubspot.com/jonathan612/30-minute-virtual-coffee-on-zoom

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1. Your Relationship: People Buy From People

The first key is trust and rapport. People buy from people they know, like and trust, which is why relationship-building is such an important part of corporate partnerships.

The strongest partnerships are rarely built in a single meeting. They are built over time through conversations, consistency and genuine interest in the other person.

Sometimes the simplest moments have the biggest impact.

Taking a few minutes to ask about someone’s weekend, holiday plans or family life helps people feel comfortable and valued. It also helps you learn more about your prospect as a person, not just as a company representative.

Remembering those details matters, questions like: “How was your holiday to Greece?” or “How’s your child settling into school?” show genuine care and help build trust over time.

Authenticity is everything. People quickly sense when relationship-building is forced or transactional and the best partnerships are built on genuine human connection.

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**2. Emotional Engagement: Make Them Feel Something**

The second key is empathy and passion about the need. People make decisions emotionally before they justify them logically. If you want a company to truly engage with your charity, they need to feel connected to the cause.

‍That’s why storytelling is so powerful.

Sharing a real story about someone your charity has supported creates emotional connection in a way statistics and presentations rarely can. Videos, service visits and first-hand experiences can be equally impactful.

When people emotionally connect with your mission, the conversation changes. It moves from: “This sounds interesting…” to: “We need to help.”

Emotion creates urgency, deepens commitment, and it often unlocks far greater value in partnerships.

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3. The Business Case: Solve Their Problem

The third key is commercial value, clearly showing what the company will gain from partnering with you.

The reality is that even if a prospect loves your cause and enjoys working with you, they still need to justify the partnership internally. Decision-makers need to see how the partnership supports their business goals, priorities or challenges.

That’s why understanding your prospect’s needs is so important. Every company is trying to achieve something. They may want to:

Increase brand awareness
Improve employee engagement
Build customer loyalty
Generate PR opportunities
Reach new audiences

Your role is to understand what matters most to them and position your partnership as part of the solution. The best way to uncover this is by asking great questions:

“What are your biggest priorities this year?”
“What challenges is your team currently facing?”
“What would success look like for you?”

The more clearly you understand their objectives, the stronger your partnership proposition becomes. That’s what great partnerships do, they create mutual value.

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Unlocking The Door

One of the simplest ways to understand how close you are to securing a new partnership is to score your prospect out of 10 across all three areas:

Relationship
Emotional engagement
Commercial value

For example:

Relationship = 9/10
Emotional engagement = 8/10
Commercial value = 2/10

Even though two areas are strong, the partnership is still unlikely to unlock because one key is missing, and this is where many partnership opportunities stall.

Scoring prospects helps you quickly identify what needs more attention:

Do you need to build more trust?
Create stronger emotional connections?
Strengthen the commercial case?

The goal is to get all three keys as close to 10 as possible. When all three keys turn together, that’s when remarkable partnerships happen.

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If you’d like to learn more about unlocking higher-value partnerships, contact Jonathan: jonathan@remarkablepartnerships.com

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What unlocks truly high-value corporate partnerships? It’s not just a great pitch. Discover the 3 essential keys every fundraiser needs to build stronger relationships, create emotional connection, and demonstrate real commercial value that companies can’t ignore.

Learn More

The Four Ways Charities Create Value For Businesses

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Charities help companies achieve the following goals:

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Employee Engagement and Retention

Corporate partnerships provide employees with opportunities to support causes that matter, strengthening morale and workplace culture.

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Competitive Differentiation

Working with charities helps businesses stand out and demonstrate purpose in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

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Sales Opportunities

Purpose-driven partnerships can strengthen customer relationships and attract new customers.

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Brand Trust and Credibility

Authentic partnerships help companies build stronger, more trusted brands.

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Right now, all four of these areas are top priorities for companies.

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Why Understanding Partnership Value Matters

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When charities understand how to measure and communicate their partnership value, something powerful happens.

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They gain the confidence to pitch bigger opportunities, create stronger proposals and negotiate partnerships based on the real value rather than guesswork.

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This shift allows charities to move beyond undervalued collaborations and instead build high-impact corporate partnerships that benefit both sides.

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Learn How To Calculate Your Partnership Value

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To help charities develop this confidence, Remarkable Partnerships have created a new service: Unlock Corporate Partnerships Value Workshop.

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This practical session is designed to help charities understand the value they can offer companies and apply a simple framework to calculate it.

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During the workshop, you will learn:

About the four types of partnership value.
Explore why understanding value helps secure higher-value corporate partnerships.
See examples from successful corporate charity partnerships.
Work through an interactive exercise calculating the value of a current partner or prospect.

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The session lasts 2 hours and 30 minutes and provides a practical method charities can continue using when developing future partnerships.

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If you’d like to learn more about the workshop, contact: jonathan@remarkablepartnerships.com

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Many charities undervalue their corporate partnerships, limiting both impact and opportunity. This article explores why, the real value charities bring to businesses, and how understanding it can unlock stronger partnerships, with a workshop for those looking to take it further.