Giving Compass' Take:
- Matthew Mannix explains that corporate-charity partnerships can be fruitful for the social sector because funders can utilize these partnerships to best help their grantees.
- Mannix mentions that private sector resources can help enhance grantee projects and build capacity. How can funders help to build and maintain these partnerships in the long-term?
- Read about the business benefits of sustainability partnerships.
What is Giving Compass?
We connect donors to learning resources and ways to support community-led solutions. Learn more about us.
Corporate-charity partnerships are often associated with businesses handing over oversized cheques for underwhelming amounts and staff volunteering to ‘help’ charities but getting in the way.
However, our work supporting the Stone Family Foundation (SFF) with its grant making has shown us the private sector is genuinely offering a lot to help charities make a bigger difference in people’s lives, and that these kind of partnerships are something that funders, trusts, foundations and philanthropists—can and should actively help to happen.
Here is an example from our work across the SFF’s Disadvantaged Youth Portfolio which we think will illustrate the value of partnership to the most committed corporate-charity cynic.
OC&C Strategy Consultants recently supported IntoUniversity to understand where it should be looking to build more of its local learning centres which inspire and help young people to access university. OC&C provided a pro bono team of seven people who used big data analysis to map the schools where young people are both experiencing the most extreme deprivation and are least likely to progress to university. The analysis allowed IntoUniversity to pinpoint highly specific local communities where its centres are likely to have the most impact.
Delving deeper into how these partnerships were formed reveals the role funders can have ‘match-making’ between the private and charity sectors.
From large foundations with professional staff to individual philanthropists, funders often have or can develop connections with people in the private sector. These can be leveraged to help their grantees gain access to expert support that can help them benefit from advancements in technology and big data analysis that are often out of reach of most charities. Funders should use their connections to help their grantees identify what partnership opportunities are out there and to introduce them to businesses who can help them.
Read the full article about understanding how to leverage corporate-charity partnerships by Matthew Mannix at NPC.