Charities should be more confident and leverage their expertise in order to have more meaningful partnerships with businesses, an event heard this week.
Homelessness charity Crisis’s chief executive Matt Downie urged charities to recognise the benefits they bring to commercial partnerships.
“When charities view the world of commerce and business simply through the lens of ‘please just give me some money because we’re fundraising and we’ll go out of business’, you lose your agency in a relationship, like any human relationship,” he said.
“Understanding the true value of what you bring is vastly valuable.
“There are massive amounts of resources that are in our sector on evidence, solutions and lived experience.
“And we have reputations. As organisations, it’s really important that we maintain them and use that as a prospect for partnership.”
Downie told the Charity and Business event that said some private businesses are publicly fundraising and running their own programmes to tackle societal issues.
“They don’t need or want a charity,” he said. “We are probably running out of time unless we adopt a position of much more confidence about what we bring to a partnership.”
If not, he said: “We might be written out of the story”.
In order to have a meaningful partnership, charities should also help not just the social purpose of a business but also its commercial objectives, he said.
‘Match made in heaven’
Harriet Oppenheimer, chief executive of hearing loss charity RNID, said at the event, organised by the Conduit and Sheila McKechnie Foundation, that each charity represents a cause and offers something unique.
“Whether it’s personal lived experience or connection through a kind of alignment to personal values, that kind of connection to a big cause, it is more unique to the charity sector,” she said.
Along with the trusted reputation charities have, they can connect businesses with other charities and the public sector through partnerships.
She said charities and businesses bring different capabilities to the table and “that’s the match made in heaven”.
Finding the right partnership
When it comes to smaller charities with lesser-known reputation and brand name, Downie said they should be clear on their propositions when seeking commercial partnerships.
But Downie said having a well-known brand name is just an introduction.
It’s more important for charities to build relationships with businesses, he said, and it’s more crucial to let businesses see and experience the cause their charity does and the impact it has.
James Perry, co-founder of frozen food company COOK, said that smaller charities can offer a partnership real insights into the local communities they serve.
Perry said: “There’s a lovely opportunity for smaller charities to find their match.
“It is a dating process. You might have to kiss a few frogs, but go out there and kiss some frogs and find a match because I’m sure they are out there.”
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