Last month at Fall Business Meeting’s CDO Summit, Kane Calamari, Senior Vice President – Chief Human Resource Officer and President – Ace Foundation presented five ways you can help partners like Ace Hardware. His remarks included some sage advice on ways to deepen the partnership with Ace Hardware retailers in your markets. Three of these ways are highlighted below. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to Shirley Rogers, SVP Hospital Relations (srogers@cmnhospitals.org) or Emily Cawley, Director, Hospital Relations (ecawley@cmnhospitals.org). Click HERE to download Kane’s full presentation.

1. Help drive their competitive spirit. Ace retailers are competitive by nature, they compete everyday with each other on sales and marketing. Engaging their competitive natures in their fundraising efforts has proved successful!
2. Hospital tours matter – make them special. We have all sat through a boring presentation or tour at some point in our lives. They are excruciating at times. However, tours, when done well, can connect a donor, or in our case, a retailer, to your cause for years to come. There are small things that can vastly improve a tour. First, smaller groups are always better. Making a small investment in technology that allows tour participants to hear clearly what is being said will greatly impact the quality of your tours. Lastly, know your audience. Figure out what might be specifically of interest to them and work to accommodate that. Introduce them to the radiology tech that runs the newest MRI machine or invite the top surgeon to address the group of how the funds or used. Be creative, make them special.
3. Naming opportunities. Recognition in the local hospitals for the funds raised by Ace retailers is a fantastic way to appreciate them for their efforts. Big or small, it does not matter. What matters is knowing you appreciate their hard work on your behalf, and and they have something to point to and say ‘Ace retailers are making a difference OR we made this happen’.
   

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