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Building Influencer Partnerships

Reading Time: 4 minutes

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This episode is presented by LoudCrowd, the social CRM where you can organize social tags, build a curated library of content, and segment UGC growth programs. Whether focused on spreading a movement, growing customer loyalty or growing your fan base, there is a UGC strategy for any organization! Learn more and sign up for a 10-day free trial here. 

Get ready to hear how Preemptive Love garnered influencer partnerships with some of the biggest influencers in the world – from Kristen Bell, Bella Hadid, Morgan Harper Nichols, to convert followers into new donors, and raise $50,000 during their first peer-to-peer fundraiser.

Kalindi Cordero joined the Preemptive Love team at just 22 years old. As their Major Gifts Officer, Kalindi shares how she landed such a powerful role at a young age, the inner workings of their Move for Peace fundraiser (now an annual tradition!), plus the two platforms that are intriguing her the most right now.

You’re going to want to have this one on repeat because there are SO many good takeaways.

Age is just a number

Kalindi learned about Preemptive Love through a family friend who had supported the organization for many years. It practically seemed like fate then, as a broke college student, that she won two tickets to a conference where their CEO Jeremy Courtney would be speaking.

After the conference, Kalindi had a golden opportunity. Not only was she able to meet with Jeremy and gush about her goals to work in the nonprofit space after college, but Jeremy said to her, “if you ever need a job, come to Preemptive Love.”

Kalindi describes that profound moment as the day when she tied an invisible string for Preemptive Love to her heart, unknowingly.

It took some time, but after working with Pedal the Pacific to raise awareness for human trafficking, she found her dream role of Gifts Officer on the Preemptive Love website. Within a week she was hired, and this was all just days before the world shut down in 2020.

Isn’t it wild that Kalindi nabbed a role like this at just 22 years old? And she brings a completely fresh perspective to it every day, as she loves to ideate and brainstorm. She learned quickly to be her own biggest advocate, taking ideas up the chain and cross-collaborating with other team members to see her ideas to fruition.

Around a year in, she received a promotion to her current title of Major Gifts Officer. 

Kalindi’s approach to securing massive visibility from top influencers

Since joining the Preemptive Love team, Kalindi has led their influencer marketing strategy and most recently helped secure powerful influencer partnerships with celebrities and inspirational public figures like Bella Hadid, Kristen Bell, and Morgan Harper Nichols.

There’s something magical about reaching out to someone you genuinely love and admire outside of the workplace, and bringing them in for a collaborative partnership. You don’t necessarily need an agency or a contact – slide into those DMs!

But how exactly do you make the ask to build strong influencer partnerships?

Kalindi urges us to customize the outreach and go deep into your research on this person. Who are they? Who are the people that are following them? And how do they tie in with your brand or organization?

For Bella Hadid, with her Palestinian background, she resonated with the mission and ended up keeping the link in her bio for 10 months straight! And even without the conversion, you might anticipate (it was maybe a few thousand dollars), the brand awareness she was spreading in this way was priceless. Upon digging into their analytics, Kalindi discovered that Bella’s link was the 4th largest source of Preemptive Love’s overall web traffic.

From never doing peer-to-peer fundraising to making it an annual tradition

Instead of focusing on growth and numbers, think about how you can serve the people you are already supporting and it will in turn, create a ripple effect. 

Move for Peace is Kalindi’s baby, dreamed up from a 12+ page Google doc with her work bestie. With the pandemic still in full swing, there was a yearning for community. Kalindi knew her donors could fundraise and they could absolutely bring in their own communities.

The event is an invitation to move in solidarity with refugee friends in Syria, Iraq, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Afghanistan, and Lebanon. Each participant is invited to move in any way they see fit, as they fundraise within their own personal networks.

The testimonials they got were incredibly moving and so many sweaty selfies were shared! Someone was proposed to during their Move for Peace, while another found happiness after going through a tough time.

Move for Peace raised $50,000 in its first year, and is now an annual tradition.

Kalindi’s Ask

Kalindi would love for our listeners to check out this year’s Move for Peace, where they’re on a mission to raise $120,000. Registration opens on July 18th.

Kalindi also says, “I love brainstorming and ideating so if you have an idea, if you love being in the room and socializing and talking with other digital marketers in the nonprofit space or fundraising, I’m your girl. Let’s have a meeting, let’s talk! I want all of the creative content and juices flowing.”

To connect with Kalindi, email her at kalindi.cordero@preemptivelove.org. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her Instagram @kal_is_your_pal.

Notable Quotes from Kalindi

“You learn so much by going through someone’s Instagram or TikTok profile and seeing who they’re following and seeing who is liking their posts.”

“I kid you not – my jaw dropped. Bella Hadid having the link in her bio for 10 months, she brought the 4th highest amount of web traffic to our site.”

Resources & Links

Head to LoudCrowd to benchmark your UGC performance and sign up for a 10-day free trial!

Support the work Preemptive Love is doing by making a donation or following them on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. You can also sign up for Move for Peace and participate this September. Registration opens July 18th.

To connect with Kalindi, email her at kalindi.cordero@preemptivelove.org. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her Instagram @kal_is_your_pal.

Check out my NEW $27 mini-course, Visible Reach In A Week. In 30 minutes, you’ll learn how to create a $3 a day ad campaign that will drive brand awareness with your supporters.

Check out Kalindi’s favorite TikTok account, @duolingo.

Want to make Missions to Movements even better? Take a screenshot of this episode and share it on Instagram. Be sure to tag @positivequation so I can connect with you.

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