By: Mollye Rhea
Last month, we released our 2022 report, Next Level Partnerships: A Corporate Perspective, the result of polling corporate partnerships professionals from 65 companies to gain their insights into all things cause partnerships. The survey respondents represent a broad range of industry sectors, providing guidance into cause strategies and objectives across the spectrum of business models.
We’ve tracked corporate partnership trends for more than a decade and over the last year, we’ve seen that stakeholders have higher expectations of companies and their cause platforms across the board. Let’s dive into key learnings, including how corporate partnership decision makers are reacting to increased pressures and the motivations behind their decision making.
Key Learning 1: Brand/mission alignment is the most important factor companies consider when selecting a nonprofit partner.
Question: How important are the following factors or benefits when selecting a national/global nonprofit partnership?
While the data is clear that significant marketplace shifts are driving changes in how companies approach partnerships, there is consistency in how important brand/mission alignment remains to partnership decision makers when selecting nonprofit partners, with 97% identifying it as a key factor.
Five additional factors were ranked as important by over 75% of survey respondents:
- Fit with giving guidelines/goals
- Programmatic impact
- Employee engagement and enhanced morale
- Enhanced brand image or brand loyalty
- Showcasing CSR
What this means for cause partnership planning:
- Nonprofits need to be ready to communicate their mission, core values and impact measurements in partnership discussions to seek authentic alignment.
- Corporations will want to share why a mission and partner was chosen with their stakeholders, for buy-in and engagement and to establish trust and authenticity in the partnership and its activities.
Key Learning 2: Employee engagement is now the most universal type of partnership activity.
Question: Which of the following partnership activities that support nonprofits is your company currently involved with?
As the graph demonstrates, over 92% of companies surveyed reported that they support employee engagement, now the most universal type of partnership activity. Other survey data substantiates the importance of employees in the partnership equation. For example, nearly 8 in 10 companies prioritize employees as a key audience for partner selection.
What this means for cause partnership planning:
- Not considering employee engagement opportunities is a huge miss for optimal partnership planning and could be the foot in the door for larger partnership opportunities.
- Go beyond one activity and get creative. Not every company is looking for an in-person activity so be prepared to offer a range of engagement options. Provide awareness stories and educational materials or online tours. Engage employees virtually or consider skilled volunteerism opportunities leveraging their unique skills.
Key Learning 3: Impacting the nonprofit’s mission and success stories showing impact are the top two success measures for corporate partnership decision makers.
Question: How important are each of the following ways that you can measure the success of your partnerships with nonprofit organizations?
Corporations want to make a difference and be able to effectively and authentically communicate this to their stakeholders. Nonprofits are engaged and integrated into communities and can help their partners support initiatives that have a tangible and immediate impact.
What this means for cause partnership planning:
- The most successful cause campaigns demonstrate true mission impact. Counting impressions is no longer enough. Stakeholders across the board want to know these partnerships are making a true difference on the issues.
- Effective storytelling remains a primary tactic in bringing the mission impact to life. Integrate data capture for storytelling into campaign planning to ensure partnership satisfaction.
Do our findings resonate with you? What enhancements could help your partnership planning yield greater impact? Please download the full report, and reach out if you’d like to exchange ideas.
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