Tips for partnerships
Getting start in Partnerships by The NETWORK To get start in partnerships with business, NGO should seek to analyze what kind of causes each company prefers to support and how it relates to the company core value in order to develop good partnerships in leveraging resources of both businesses and ngos. For example, Ford Motor Company Fund & Community Services supports not-for-profit organizations in three major areas: innovation and education, community development and American legacy, and auto-related safety education.
SustainAbility identified some key success factors to avoid risks of the partnerships:
The company must be serious about changing its behavior, and should be able to drive change in its own sector and across the business community more generally. The NGO must be able to maintain clear accountability to its own key stakeholders, and must maintain its independence from the business partner. Each partner needs to benefit directly, and to understand the other's benefits. The "rules of engagement" need to be clearly agreed at the outset. Individual participants must be sufficiently senior to have their organization's mandate and be able to take difficult decisions without constantly having to refer back. The people involved must trust each other.
Six key steps to effective multi-sector partnerships By Mark Nieker, President and Executive Director, Pearson Foundation. * Know thyself: Understand your own personal motives and your organizations'goals * Take time for due diligence: Search for partners who can add to your expertise and extend your goals * Share a vision: Make sure your goals together are clearly defined and mutuallyimportant * Invest in social capital: Once started, take steps to ensure you conti nue to work together * Build organizational capital: Share the expertise developed among all stakeholders * Make the partnership a priority: Don't stop with your first success or failure
Six Steps Towards Integrated Cause Communication Strategy by Assistant Professor Dr. Krittinee Nuttavuthisit, Marketing of SASIN, Thailand 1) Identification 2) Personification 3) Build Awareness 4) Develop understanding and gain trust 5) Take action 6) Involve the community members.
Culturing Community Services
1. 2. 3. 4.
Leaderships must come from the top Services should be a part of the business from beginning Employees should be allowed a reasonably time off for community services Giving should be more than just dollar.
Tackling the Big Project: Its Requirements 1. Multiyear commitment of resources 2. Dedicated, paid staff to manage the project 3. Partnerships with key non-profit and governmental players 4. Diversity of leadership and participants 5. Establishment of clear, mutually beneficial goals, 6. Networking with other experts and funders 7. Defining and examining the core problems (rather than merely symptoms) to address 8. Sustainability planning 9. External evaluation by a respected third party 10. Flexibility and innovation in responding to bumps along the road. . By Karen Southwick "How corporate can make doing good an integral part of doing well" The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in Nonprofit/For-profit Relationships
The good: collaborative planning, patience, human resource to support cash, unrestricted funding that cover administrative costs, flexibility in scheduling projects. The bad: unrealistic objectives/timing, flooding of resource without determination of need, reliance on a single source of funds, overly strict reporting requirements The ugly: arrogance, using business acumen and processes without attempting to understand current processes without attempting to understand current processes and problems, focusing on self-promotion, blatant conflicts and interest. "Marc Benioff, Chairman of Salesforce.com"
How to improve NGO & Business Partnerships Part II
Ensure good governance: maintain transparency, communication and mutual accountability among partners, ensuring democratic processes within the institutions and emphasizing primary stakeholders Welcome the private sector but ensure that it does not dominate Arrangement for risk sharing among partners. Not only financial risk but also institutional reputation. Multi-stakeholders & multi-sectoral partnerships could help the program to achieve regional and national objectives, not divert it; ensure private funding not to skew activities towards the most media-worthy rather than the most vital projects for the people. Maximize strategic influence: link the partnership to nationally or globally agreed priorities (Millennium Development Goals, Agenda 21, National or Regional Development/Environmental Objectives, etc).
"Ismid Hadad, The NETWORK's Advisory Member & President KEHATI - Indonesian Biodiversit