A commonly used tool available to nonprofit organizations are
corporate-nonprofit partnerships. As long as a nonprofit is prepared
to work with a corporate partner in a way that recognizes that
partnerships carry responsibilities that aren’t necessarily attached
to donations, these kinds of arrangements offer great benefits.
Likewise, corporations must realize that their nonprofit partners
are more than silent partners, as they bring a good deal of
credibility and support to the table.
If both the corporate and nonprofit entities involved in a
partnership realize and accept their responsibilities and understand
that they must assume shared risks along with contributions,
corporate-nonprofit partnerships can be deeply beneficially to both
parties. The point of this article is to briefly describe what can
be expected of each entity along with several of the more prominent
types of partnerships currently being used.
Corporate partners must be able to offer their nonprofit partners
several basic tools, in particular cash; promotional opportunities,
such as visibility, expanded audience, and their networks of
employees, clients, contacts, etc.; strategic development; marketing
expertise; and general corporate know how.
In return the nonprofit must ensure that it operates in a way
that will allow it to lend its good name to the corporation. By
doing so, the corporation will enhance its reputation, thereby
building brand loyalty and increasing its sales. Ideally, the
partnership will offer to the corporate partners a greater
connection with the community and regional and federal governments,
and it will enhance the corporation’s ability to recruit and retain
employees while nurturing the skills of those employees.
There are several different ways in which corporations and
nonprofits can form partnerships. Among the most popular are the
following: sponsorships, certifications, cause-related marketing,
message promotion, licensing, grantor-grantee partnerships,
advocacy, employee involvement, and operations/social enterprise.
A sponsorship can be either financial or in-kind operational
support, involving the corporate partner offering the support and
the nonprofit offering recognition.
Certification works in a similarly simple way; by offering its
respectability to its corporate partner’s product(s) and/or
service(s), the nonprofit increases its name-recognition while
enhancing the consumer’s trust in its partner’s product/service.
Cause-related marketing, or cause marketing) is the practice of
linking a company’s products or services with a particular issue in
order to raise funds for the nonprofit. American Express was the
first to employ this strategy. In 1983, it linked its credit card
service with the Statue of Liberty renovation program, leading to a
28 percent increase in the use of its product and raising nearly $2
million for the program in just four months.
Message promotion is another simple way to partner, involving a
corporation or a media outlet promoting a public interest message
that supports s nonprofit’s goals. This is a good way for the
corporation to generate goodwill toward its brand.
A partnership that involves licensing is one in which a company
either pays a fee to a nonprofit, or ensures it that its name will
be attached to the product developed, for use of the knowledge
and/or information that the nonprofit has gathered.
A grantor-grantee partnership is formed when a company, through
either a corporate-giving program or a company-established
foundation, makes a contribution to a nonprofit, for which the
company is acknowledged. Known as strategic philanthropy or
corporate social investing, these partnerships are formed in order
to fulfill business purposes but done so in a way that is of great
benefit to the nonprofit partner.
Other partnerships are formed because of advocacy, or lobbying,
efforts, with many partners beginning their relationships as
adversaries. These partnerships involve corporate and nonprofit
entities working together in order to change public policy, create
and support self-regulation programs, and to endorse ethical
standards in an industry. An example of this would be a nonprofit
environmental group working with an energy corporation to cut down
on pollution in a way that benefits both parties.
Another way that a corporation can support a nonprofit is through
the resources available from its employees. Known as employee
involvement, this sort of partnership involves the creation of
employee volunteer programs, workplace giving campaigns, and
matching gifts programs, among other devices.
The last type of partnership to be mentioned is known as an
operations/social enterprise. This sort of partnership enhances a
company’s business prospects through the creation of exclusive
supply and/or distribution channels. These channels are formed with
organizations that operate in a way that directly benefits society,
such a through prisoner work programs.
Clearly, corporations and nonprofit organizations have much to offer
one another. Certainly these are only a few of the several types of
partnerships that can be formed, but this is a good start. If the
partnership is formed thoughtfully and knowledgeably, both parties
stand to gain a great deal. |
