Strategic Corporate Partnerships: Give More Than Money
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In today's business world, meaningful and lasting partnerships MUST be measured and intricately planned to drive successful cause marketing campaigns. This briefing presented on 12/17/14 showcases the steps to do them right.
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Strategic Corporate Partnerships: Give More Than Money
- 1. More Than Writing A Check Creating Successful, Multifaceted Corporate/Nonprofit Partnerships @susanmcp1 VolunteerMatch Webinar December 17, 2014
- 2. This is soo 1994.
- 3. The future of corporate philanthropy is all about strategic partnerships.
- 7. Give more than money.
- 10. Engagecustomers.
- 11. Be transparent in all things.
- 12. Measure.
- 13. Tell your story.
Editor's Notes
- 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, the landscape looked different than it does today. It was a question of ‘if’ a company was going to support social issues and make a donation. So it used to be that just writing a check– that was a lot, that was enough for a company. But now it’s no longer about IF an company gives– it’s about how. What’s behind that check? What else are they doing? How does it align with their larger brand? Companies that get corporate philanthropy right tend to have crafted a clear strategy, aligned themselves with a particular nonprofit and committed to doing more than a one-off campaign or donation.
- Rather than one-off donations, start to think about your corporate philanthropy in terms of partnerships with nonprofits--what partners are poised to help your company achieve its social good and business goals and how can you best support your partners’ work? During this presentation, we’ll talk about how to form successful partnerships and how you can be strategic from day one.
- A company has to align its philanthropic strategy with its overall mission and values. It can’t just be random– the causes you care about have to be a real, authentic and embedded aspect of your brand. In other words, just because it’s October doesn’t mean your company should throw its weight behind breast cancer causes. You have to find something that’s authentic to your brand. If you’re Patagonia, you’re not going to pick something that’s completely outside the realms of outdoor recreation and the environment. Here’s an example of what can happen if you choose donations and partnerships that are “on trend” rather than truly aligned with what you care about as a business: back in October, Alhambra water sold pink-ribbon-labeled plastic polycarbonate water bottles that contain bisphenol-A (BPA), an endocrine-disrupting chemical that has been linked to various hormonal cancers, including breast cancer. If the company was truly dedicated to breast cancer research and cared, they would have done their research.
- Once you have a strong sense of who you are and what your company is authentically dedicated to, you can begin to look for partners that can help you accomplish your social and business goals. If you’re a company that cares about rainforests, for example, what partners are best suited to help make an impact on conservation efforts? How will that organization help elevate your overall commitment and give you the chance to engage all of your stakeholders with the cause? Don’t just look for organizations that align with the causes you care about– look for those that are a cultural fit and ones that you think you’ll work/communicate well with. The ones that see eye to eye on how to approach a given social issue. The ones that will challenge you and help you think outside the box. MAYBE GIVE AN EXAMPLE OR TWO HERE OF PARTNERSHIPS YOU’VE HELPED FACILITATE?
- The first step to any successful match is careful planning– doing so upfront will help you ensure you and your nonprofit partners are on the same page and have a clear path to follow. As part of this, be sure to define success metrics upfront so that you know what goals you’re working to achieve. Think about what kind of partnership you’re looking for and the different ways you may be willing to join forces with the nonprofit to create impact. Work closely with your nonprofit partner to create a clear timeline and plan for the relationship that include opportunities for engagement throughout the year. As you do, remember that this is designed to be mutually beneficial—it’s a partnership! Both sides of the partnership should have a voice and neither should feel like they are compromising values or vision for the other. USE EXAMPLE OF GIRL RISING: When Intel partnered with documentary film and social movement for girls education Girl Rising, Intel decided to bring in outside firm to help structure the partnership, define the goals on both sides and create a two-year plan with quarterly deliverables. This helped ensure that the partnership was mutually beneficial, goals were agreed upon and that things actually got done on time.
- Companies have lots more to give than money! When you’re thinking about the partnerships you’re creating, always think about what else you can give—what assets do you have to offer? How can you support the nonprofit in other ways? How can you activate your employees, customers, etc. to support that nonprofit? EXAMPLE: Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation’s Sports Matter initiative. The foundation was interested in the issues of underfunded sports teams in the United States, so launched a crowdfunding program for such teams, called Sports Matter. Dick’s not only donated funds, but also leveraged its marketing team, producing both commercials and a feature-length documentary called “We Could Be Kings.”
- When you’re thinking about what else you can give beyond money, also think about how you can get creative with the campaign and use various social, digital and storytelling platforms to really push the campaign to the next level. Corporate philanthropy shouldn’t be stale- in fact, it gives you an incredible opportunity to be innovative and push the envelope, finding new and interesting ways to support your partner and engage stakeholders. A perfect example of this is Elizabeth Arden’s Pinterest campaign- Pin It To Give It, which encourages Pinterest users to re-pin content from the company’s #PinItToGiveIt board. For every re-pin from the board that used the dedicated hashtag, Elizabeth Arden donated one lipstick to Look Good Feel Better, a public service program dedicated to improving the self-esteem and quality of life of women undergoing cancer treatment. It was an unprecedented use of Pinterest for philanthropy.
- The companies with the best CSR programs are the ones that give all of their stakeholders a chance to participate. Find opportunities to give employees the chance to get involved and be a part of the change you’re seeking to create. This also opens the door for open conversation, where your stakeholders can weigh in on where they’d like to see you do better, what initiatives they believe in, and whether they’d like to be more involved. Back to Girl Rising– a perfect example of how Intel made the most of the partnership through employee engagemenet. For International Day of the Girl 2013 activities, employees donated more than 4,000 volunteer hours in a global giveback day across 17 global Intel sites, including an event with Intel’sCEO and 9 other senior executive members in a volunteer event. Employee communications on the topic have reached thousands of employees through multiple Circuit articles and blogs, and feedback from employees has been extremely positive. The campaign also provided excellent content for Intel’s internal women’s organizations (including its Network of Executive Women and Women at Intel Network) to leverage for their events and membership engagement
- Talk about your experience with We Can Be Heroes and why WB decided to go the IndieGogo engagement route.
- Transparency is essential to any partnership. Be honest throughout- be real about goals, progress, tough discussions, etc. Honesty and transparency are paramount to effective corporate citizenship, with social media making it even more crucial for companies to be honest with their external stakeholders and "fail forward." Corporate-nonprofit partnerships will fail when both parties are not upfront with goals. Example of failure? (can you think of one?)
- Measurement is KEY. Ideally, you set up your metrics early on for whatever it is that you want to come from the partnership—is it how awareness of a topic changed over time? How many events your employees hosted? How much money your customers came together to raise? How many people watched a certain video? Whatever it is, make sure you’ve clarified it up front and that you’re taking time along the way to measure your success against those goals. If things aren’t moving in the right direction, how can you change course and evolve your approach? If things are working out as planned, how can you use what’s been working to create an even bigger impact? When all is said and done, having strong metrics and being able to explain and show your impact will enable your executive team to more easily support these types of initiatives in the future
- Once you have a clear sense of the impact that your partnership was able to help create, it’s time to tell the world about it. Be sure to talk publicly about your commitments, goals and results, and learn from others as they do they same. It gives you the chance to inspire other companies to do more. Sharing your incredible strides toward becoming more sustainable puts pressure on other brands and ultimately elevates the entire industry. You can embrace collaboration this way, creating a space where you are actually working alongside your competitors to collectively make the world a more sustainable place. It’s not bragging if it’s an authentic part of who you are. Just a caution here: Companies need to show the impact of what they’re doing, not try to make news out of the fact that they’ve launched a program. Some great ways to do this: #CSRchat, videos, blog content, case studies, etc.