Nonprofits that want to create marketing deals with companies need to think hard about how they can make it simple and low-cost for the business to carry out every step of the arrangement.

Brent Buechler, Calgary Public Library Foundation’s manager of partnerships, said during a session today at the Association of Fundraising Professionals annual meeting in Vancouver that the goal should be to make it easy for companies to tell their employees, like those at the checkout register seeking an extra $1 for a good cause, how to make the pitch.

Those employees are an important and sometimes overlooked part of a marketing deal, expert say.

“They are the ones who are going to have to ask,” says Jocelyne Daw, a cause-marketing consultant.

Smart charities recognize that making such pitches is an add-on to their everyday job, so make sure not to add much of a burden and offer to train the workers on the best ways to promote you cause, she said.

Send an e-mail to Cody Switzer.