By: Mollye Rhea, President and Founder, For Momentum
The much-anticipated results of For Momentum’s new Partnership Dynamics survey are in. They validate what many of us knew, but didn’t have the data to support: that every nonprofit organization can improve the collaboration between their national and local offices. And more importantly, data identifying what we can do about it. View the results and implement the remedies.
Each year, For Momentum fields research to provide insight into and advance the thinking around successful social impact partnerships. This year, we focused on the dynamics between National Nonprofit HQ’s and their local Chapters/Affiliates in terms of cultivating, planning and activating corporate sponsorships. More than 50 leading nonprofits participated, shaping these findings and best practices.
The research study focused on the following:
- Snapshot of the state of play across NPO’s today.
- What are we doing right?
- What opportunities exist for improvement?
- Guidelines for best practice elements.
Below is a sampling of key findings. More findings are available in the full report:
- 1/3 of nonprofits lack procedures to deliver local sponsorship benefits at the local level.
- Only 12% of chapters report being included in cultivation of national partners.
- More than half of all partnerships have 3 or more activations – so HQ/Chapter coordination is key.
- 47% of chapters want more training re: national initiatives and partnerships.
- Nonprofits with clear revenue sharing guidelines have higher staff satisfaction than those who don’t (64% vs 42%).
Survey participants shared the challenges that they face at every stage of the partnership – from cultivation through implementation. Download the results here to review the key pain points and our recommended four treatment options:
- Cultivation: Formalize clear guidelines. The majority of organizations do not have referral or backyard fees which provide strong incentives to Chapters.
- Credit: Develop and publish revenue sharing policies for HQ and Chapters so everybody on the team is incentivized to contribute to partnership building.
- Communication: Ongoing education and training about partnerships result in more unity, consistency and more satisfied staff.
- Collaboration: Create a HQ-Chapter taskforce to develop policies and procedures regarding strategic national corporate partnerships is highly desired and a common practice among organizations with the most satisfied staff.
Christy Hartsell, VP Corporate Partnerships & Co-Marketing at Truth Initiative said: “This study validates what we all believed. Now we have data to bring to our stakeholders and have a conversation based not on emotion, but through a scientific lens.”
Want to learn more? The National/Local Dynamics 2017 Research will provide you with actionable insights based on data and best practices shared by 50+ leading nonprofits. After you review all the findings, let us know what you think. Which remedies will you implement? What other pain points are you experiencing? Leave a comment below or contact me to discuss.
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