CASH IS NOT THE ONLY KING
Cash is king in a non-profit, so it’s worth examining your annual costs to see how they can be reduced. It’s a lot easier to save a dollar than to earn a dollar, especially in a recession.
Partnering with a corporate is a fantastic way to bolster your organisation; very few income generating-strategies bring so many rich and diverse rewards. Partnering with a company or brand should absolutely provide financial assistance to enable your organisation to operate, that’s a given. Beware of merely focusing on the bottom line, because there’s a variety of juicy benefits available. Tapping into a corporate partner’s expertise and resources can improve your efficiency, spark innovation and reduce costs.
Physical resources and goods in kind (GIK): Non-profits can utilise their partners’ office space (for conferences and meetings), technology (Zoom, video-conferencing), second-hand computers, recording studios, etc.
When Hailey worked with The Leukaemia Foundation in the late 1990s, they were a small Queensland-based non-profit providing caring support and medical research for people with blood cancers. Hailey’s client, AMP, were looking to partner with a national health cause. The Leukaemia Foundation had a BHAG[1] to expand nationally, led by amazing changemakers the late Phil Desbrow and Dr Wendy Scaife. AMP took a leap of faith, assisting the Foundation to open in each State, and in Victoria, Sydney and WA the Foundation’s staff operated out of the AMP offices for many years. The partnership lasted for 6 years, double the original timeframe, contributing over AUD$1M but also advice and guidance on expansion, 120 staff members who became Leukaemia Ambassadors, promoting the cause and raising a further $300,000 plus providing office space that saved huge sums in rent. It was a win-win – AMP staff loved having a bunch of passionate changemakers in their midst and it provided an unprecedented level of motivation and pride. Most importantly, the partnership created the ongoing legacy of a national range of services for people with leukaemia and related blood disorders. AMP and its employees have impacted thousands of families.
A BePartnerReady.com® student, Kids Under Cover, partnered with Zinfra in 2018, an engineering & infrastructure company. As well as cash, Zinfra provided trucks to deliver cubby houses for the Cubby House Challenge event at the International Flower Show.
Watch the story here
When former student CanTeen partnered with Wendy’s, they provided $10,000 worth of ice cream. CanTeen run camps for kids, so for them it was a brilliant value-add. Not all GIK is appropriate, but doing a ‘needs’ list will help.
Expertise and Skills: Non-profits can access their partners’ expertise: communications, digital and PR skills, introductions to creative agencies, in-house production staff, business planning, and social impact audits, for example. Gone are the days when companies just volunteer their staff for a one-off event. Partner staff can get engaged at various levels, both online and out of the office.
In 1999, Hailey’s client SEEK wanted a cause partner, but being a lean start-up back then, they had a small budget. What they did have was dozens of brilliant, young tech experts who wanted to meaningfully contribute to their community.
She matched them to Volunteering Australia, who had a vision to create a national online volunteering website. In 2000, SEEK Volunteer was launched, an online portal connecting Australians to volunteer opportunities. SEEK paid for the entire build and 20 years on, continue maintaining and investing in it, including funding mass market campaigns which have increased volunteering enquiries by 555%, generated over AUD$3M in media value and contributed AUD$20M of incremental labour to Australian charities. All this, because SEEK had expertise to offer, and Volunteering Australia recognised the value in that, over and above a donation.
If you’d like to know more about the benefits of a corporate partnership, download our free infographic here
Georgia McIntosh
[1] Big Hairy Audacious Goal
