A new report published today by New Philanthropy Capital found that some 70 per cent of donations made by corporates to charities are under £5,000, suggesting most partnerships are “small and short-term”.
The report: Building More Impactful Corporate-Charity Partnerships was published by NPC today, and is based on research conducted with 36 national charities and corporations including the British Red Cross, Macmillan Cancer Support, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and National Grid.
The report said that the fact that 70 per cent of donations to charities from corporates were under £5,000 showed “there is little point having more corporate charity partnerships if they do not have impact”.
NPC's report calls for a restructuring of the way “traditional” corporate partnerships between charities and businesses work.
Traditional partnerships create 'power imbalance'
The report argues that “traditional models, where the corporate is grant giver and the charity grant receiver, create a power imbalance” and found that more than half of charity respondents said they had “taken on volunteers” from their corporate partner “that they didn’t need to strengthen relationships or protect their reputation”.
NPC also found that there is often an imbalance between what charities and corporates want to get out of a partnership. The report found that 91 per cent of businesses “cite enhancing brand or corporate reputation and credibility” as their leading motivation for becoming involved in a charity partnership.
By contrast, 92 per cent of charities said that “resource generation is the lead motivation” for engaging in corporate partnerships.
Corporate partnerships shouldn't just be fundraising responsibility
Charities are also guilty of mismanaging corporate partnerships internally, as the report found that “charities too often see idea generation about how to work with corporates as a function of the fundraising team, rather than the programme team” which results in partnerships not being “designed into the programme”.
The report also sets out NPC’s “five components for building an impactful corporate-charity partnership”.
These components are: Establishing an equal relationship; thinking beyond CSR (corporate social responsibility); designing effective volunteering; involving more partners; and measuring your impact.
The report can be downloaded and read for free via this link.
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