I learned a big lesson early on forming this org – the beginning of 2018.
Coming from the pro sports world, teams were all in friendly competition. Friendly, the operative word. Each sales staff wanted to sell more season tix than any other team & earn a league award for it. That extended to things like renewals, new corporate partner sales, the latest tech, etc.
BUT, even in a super competitive industry, we realized we were lucky to be part of a 30-32 team brother/sisterhood (or even 120+ teams across major pro sports leagues). We realized that tho we were trying to be “the top team” in certain categories, we were partners at the end of the day, & one team raising the bar, helped that overall brother/sisterhood.
Growth in the industry, betterment of the fan experience – those were all things that benefited the industry as a whole!
The lesson I learned in the nonprofit space, especially w some of the larger orgs, there is a lot of talk abt partnership & kumbaya. Even coalitions. But at the end of the day, competition for donor dollars & “protecting your base,” was at the core of most decisions.
That learning lead to building our own networks. Finding the ppl (many of you on here), celebs, docs, reporters, authors, residential treatment centers, hospitals & yes companies who all said – we are businesses (whether individuals or groups), BUT, our core, our ethos, is holding hands & working together – bc the current system isn’t working, & we need change.
We’ve shared a lot on the various alliances that’ve come from that, humbly all over the globe. But this activation with the @mets (slide ➡️) on Sunday: SameHere Citi Field is an example of a company saying: we have reach – let us help YOU to get a msg out there & partner to educate.
The Mets didn’t give us a logo on a flier & tell us to sell our own tickets. They made it part of their marketing materials, cobranded, allowed us to drive the education/activation for the game experience.
As advocate we need more of THAT. The Mets have reach we do not have. Their owners/employees care abt being part of the solutions, not just the bottom line. We need more of them!