Ask the Experts: Vendor/Client Relationships, Part II

Nonprofits want us, as a vendor, to maintain a high ethical standard. It may come as a surprise, but as a vendor, we want our nonprofit clients to maintain a high ethical standard, too. We don’t see nonprofit clients as fungible — we value every one of our clients dearly — but a strong-arm “request” for us to donate at a dictated amount, in a dictated time frame, as a condition for continuing our business relationship would quickly signal the end of a beautiful friendship.
— Joel Zimmerman, director of consulting services, Creative Direct Response