The convergence of shifting CSR trends, untapped NGO value, and pressing development challenges holds tremendous potential for driving social impact and business innovation.

Over the course of my cross-sector career working within Fortune 500 companies, NGOs, and the United Nations, I have frequently heard about the value the private sector brings to the social sector. Often overlooked or underestimated, however, is the value NGOs bring to the private sector—particularly development practitioners and service delivery organizations. Unfortunately, mutual mistrust, knowledge and skill gaps, and unspoken power dynamics can inhibit NGOs from communicating openly with companies they perceive more as funders than as partners, while preventing corporations from understanding how they might benefit from the nonprofit sector beyond a halo effect.

There is tremendous opportunity for NGOs to bridge this divide by engaging corporations around their sustainability initiatives. Well-paid consulting firms often serve this role without, in many cases, hands-on development experience. If NGOs, particularly service delivery organizations, built their own capacity to provide such services, they would be uniquely positioned to monetize their own knowledge and expertise. This could help MNCs harness the power of sustainability while also advancing NGO missions in five important ways:

  1. Developing more cost-effective and impactful corporate sustainability programs
  2. Reconceiving goods and services for the $5 trillion base of the pyramid
  3. Entering new markets, particularly frontier markets, and developing communities
  4. Addressing supply chain vulnerability and development challenges
  5. Appealing to socially conscious values to attract consumers, employees, and donors

Read the source article about sustainability by Joshua Cramer-Montes at Stanford Social Innovation Review.