News

3 insights from our charity leaders event

Min read

Share on

October 16, 2025

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

Book Your Discovery Call

Let’s build partnerships that your cause — and the world — actually needs.

Book A Discovery Call

Book A Discovery Call Book A Discovery Call

1. Your Relationship: People Buy From People

The first key is trust and rapport. People buy from people they know, like and trust, which is why relationship-building is such an important part of corporate partnerships.

The strongest partnerships are rarely built in a single meeting. They are built over time through conversations, consistency and genuine interest in the other person.

Sometimes the simplest moments have the biggest impact.

Taking a few minutes to ask about someone’s weekend, holiday plans or family life helps people feel comfortable and valued. It also helps you learn more about your prospect as a person, not just as a company representative.

Remembering those details matters, questions like: “How was your holiday to Greece?” or “How’s your child settling into school?” show genuine care and help build trust over time.

Authenticity is everything. People quickly sense when relationship-building is forced or transactional and the best partnerships are built on genuine human connection.

‍

**2. Emotional Engagement: Make Them Feel Something**

The second key is empathy and passion about the need. People make decisions emotionally before they justify them logically. If you want a company to truly engage with your charity, they need to feel connected to the cause.

‍That’s why storytelling is so powerful.

Sharing a real story about someone your charity has supported creates emotional connection in a way statistics and presentations rarely can. Videos, service visits and first-hand experiences can be equally impactful.

When people emotionally connect with your mission, the conversation changes. It moves from: “This sounds interesting…” to: “We need to help.”

Emotion creates urgency, deepens commitment, and it often unlocks far greater value in partnerships.

‍

3. The Business Case: Solve Their Problem

The third key is commercial value, clearly showing what the company will gain from partnering with you.

The reality is that even if a prospect loves your cause and enjoys working with you, they still need to justify the partnership internally. Decision-makers need to see how the partnership supports their business goals, priorities or challenges.

That’s why understanding your prospect’s needs is so important. Every company is trying to achieve something. They may want to:

Increase brand awareness
Improve employee engagement
Build customer loyalty
Generate PR opportunities
Reach new audiences

Your role is to understand what matters most to them and position your partnership as part of the solution. The best way to uncover this is by asking great questions:

“What are your biggest priorities this year?”
“What challenges is your team currently facing?”
“What would success look like for you?”

The more clearly you understand their objectives, the stronger your partnership proposition becomes. That’s what great partnerships do, they create mutual value.

‍

Unlocking The Door

One of the simplest ways to understand how close you are to securing a new partnership is to score your prospect out of 10 across all three areas:

Relationship
Emotional engagement
Commercial value

For example:

Relationship = 9/10
Emotional engagement = 8/10
Commercial value = 2/10

Even though two areas are strong, the partnership is still unlikely to unlock because one key is missing, and this is where many partnership opportunities stall.

Scoring prospects helps you quickly identify what needs more attention:

Do you need to build more trust?
Create stronger emotional connections?
Strengthen the commercial case?

The goal is to get all three keys as close to 10 as possible. When all three keys turn together, that’s when remarkable partnerships happen.

‍

If you’d like to learn more about unlocking higher-value partnerships, contact Jonathan: jonathan@remarkablepartnerships.com

‍

What unlocks truly high-value corporate partnerships? It’s not just a great pitch. Discover the 3 essential keys every fundraiser needs to build stronger relationships, create emotional connection, and demonstrate real commercial value that companies can’t ignore.

Learn More

The Four Ways Charities Create Value For Businesses

‍

Charities help companies achieve the following goals:

‍

Employee Engagement and Retention

Corporate partnerships provide employees with opportunities to support causes that matter, strengthening morale and workplace culture.

‍

Competitive Differentiation

Working with charities helps businesses stand out and demonstrate purpose in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

‍

Sales Opportunities

Purpose-driven partnerships can strengthen customer relationships and attract new customers.

‍

Brand Trust and Credibility

Authentic partnerships help companies build stronger, more trusted brands.

‍

Right now, all four of these areas are top priorities for companies.

‍

Why Understanding Partnership Value Matters

‍

When charities understand how to measure and communicate their partnership value, something powerful happens.

‍

They gain the confidence to pitch bigger opportunities, create stronger proposals and negotiate partnerships based on the real value rather than guesswork.

‍

This shift allows charities to move beyond undervalued collaborations and instead build high-impact corporate partnerships that benefit both sides.

‍

Learn How To Calculate Your Partnership Value

‍

To help charities develop this confidence, Remarkable Partnerships have created a new service: Unlock Corporate Partnerships Value Workshop.

‍

This practical session is designed to help charities understand the value they can offer companies and apply a simple framework to calculate it.

‍

During the workshop, you will learn:

About the four types of partnership value.
Explore why understanding value helps secure higher-value corporate partnerships.
See examples from successful corporate charity partnerships.
Work through an interactive exercise calculating the value of a current partner or prospect.

‍

The session lasts 2 hours and 30 minutes and provides a practical method charities can continue using when developing future partnerships.

‍

If you’d like to learn more about the workshop, contact: jonathan@remarkablepartnerships.com

‍

Many charities undervalue their corporate partnerships, limiting both impact and opportunity. This article explores why, the real value charities bring to businesses, and how understanding it can unlock stronger partnerships, with a workshop for those looking to take it further.