Charity corporate “partnerships”: strategy vs. philanthropy

I think it’s easy to forget, as a fundraiser, that the majority of people who work in the private sector are not aware that a charity/corporate partnership can make commercial sense. They haven’t heard that customers are more likely to buy products or services that include a charity donation than one without. They haven’t spent time reading third sector blogs or been to endless seminars where companies share how profitable their charity partnership has made them. 

Up until now, their interaction with charities has probably been one that has made them feel good for doing something philanthropic. Charities are the “nice organisations” that do “good things”. They do not view charities as professional organisations with very high levels of public trust, loyalty and brand recognition. 

They may have read about corporate/charity partnerships and thought that the company was making a valuable contribution to society...but not questioned why.

There are many charity/corporate partnerships that still exist purely because the company believes it is the right thing to do. Issues arise when they then ask for things in return - free fundraising materials, or detailed impact reports - that absorb the charity’s vital resources. Without meaning to, they find themselves treating their charity partners like a supplier even though the original intention behind the relationship was philanthropy rather than commercial gain.

This is why I believe that partnerships that include clearly defined commercial objectives are the most effective. 

In my opinion, where there is a commercial objective and a philanthropic one, the latter becomes one with a hidden caveat that quietly whispers “…on the understanding that the charity does the work to make this happen and it doesn’t have a negative impact on our profitability”. 

I believe this stems from two common mistakes:

1. The company fails to recognise the charity as a brand with customer journeys and commercial value. To put this into perspective, it is highly unlikely that, for example, Vodafone would ask British Gas to email all of their customers on the understanding that they will pay them less than the market rate if British Gas customers sign new contracts with Vodafone. Yet people working in the private sector so often do not view transactions with charities in the same light as they think we should be grateful for all that we are given (no matter what the commercial cost).
2. The charity treating the company as a donor rather than a partner. As charities, we are so used to being grateful when someone makes a donation without wanting anything in return that we react in the same way when a company suggests they will make a donation in exchange for something of commercial value. It is right for us to be grateful for philanthropy. It is confusing for our partners when we treat them like philanthropists when they are behaving commercially.

This is why we need to wear two hats. We have one hat that we put on to support and encourage people who are fundraising in the traditional sense. Those running marathons, organising bake sales and sitting in baths full of beans.

We also need to have our commercial hat ready to be donned when we are discussing sponsorship, access to our community connections and when we are setting the objectives of the partnerships we are forming. This is even more the case when we talk to local authorities and other public sector bodies who we run contracts for – and who small charities still too often approach as philanthropic benefactors not commercial partners. 

When you go back to your desk why not map out the relationships that you hold with your corporate and statutory partners and try and establish which hat you should be wearing when talking to each of them? 

With businesses in particular, my belief is that if we start behaving commercially we will be able to guide our partners to set objectives that make sound commercial sense. This will lead to more clearly defined expectations from both sides and increased longevity, as the company is easily able to justify to their Board why the partnership makes sense.

By Mandy Johnson (in picture), UK Director of Partnerships at change.org 

This post was previously published here and edited for Pilotlight.