Last week we held an engagement event for charity leaders. The event focused on how to deliver growth through purpose-driven corporate partnerships.

We heard from two key speakers. Ghalib Ullah, Head of Commercial Partnerships from Parkison’s UK spoke about their partnership with Next. And Georgina Oxlade, Associate Director of Operations from Remarkable Partnerships, shared an example of a successful partnership between SolarAid and Astro Lighting.

So, we want to share three valuable insights from their talks.

Get your colleagues on board

Ghalib and his team knew that they would be able to build more ambitious corporate partnerships if they had the support of their colleagues. They specifically wanted to strengthen their relationship with marketing and communications. So, they held a joint brainstorm focused on how they could work together, to build corporate partnerships that would support their marketing and communications objectives, such as dispelling the myths about Parkinson’s.

This brainstorm gave their colleagues a clearer understanding of the potential value of corporate partnerships because they could see how brands with a significant consumer audience could help them deliver their core messages. This has resulted in a must more collaborative relationship between marketing and communications and the commercial partnerships team.

Be ready to respond

One of the reasons why Parkison’s UK was able to build a major partnership with Next is they were ready to respond to an opportunity. Before he joined the charity Ghalib worked for two marketing communications agencies. This experience taught him that companies often have short-term deadlines, and they are really impressed if you are able to meet them.

There was a key moment during their partnership with Next when the company shared some product designs that needed approval within a week. This was a short amount of time, but Ghalib knew it was important that they met the deadline. They were able to do so because of all the groundwork he and his team had done building strong internal relationships, especially with the marketing and communications team.

Deliver commercial value for your partners

Georgina told us about the partnership between Astro Lighting and SolarAid. The charity could see that there was a strong shared purpose with the company, so they wanted to build a long-term partnership together. So, they focused on ensuring that the partnership delivered significant commercial value for Astro Lighting. This is particularly important during tough economic times, because companies increase their focus on delivering their bottom line.

Through their discussions it became clear that one of the company’s big challenges was engaging and uniting their mix of employees. Some are office-based lighting designers, and many are factory employees working on the production of the lights.

So SolarAid proposed a range of ideas for engaging employees which included a night-time sponsored walk with solar lights. This means that Astro Lighting has a strong business case for continuing and growing their relationship with SolarAid.

Conclusion

We hope that these insights are valuable to you. Getting your colleagues on board, being quick to respond, and delivering commercial value are three powerful ways you can build ambitious corporate partnerships.

We would love to hear any additional recommendations that you have. Please email us at team@remarkablepartnerships.com