News

4 inspiring examples of growing partnerships

Min read

Share on

October 16, 2025

‘Plan, Deliver and Grow’, it sounds like the title to a good book, but in fact it isn’t. These are the fundamental building blocks which enable you to grow the value from your current partners.

This blog will not only focus you on how to grow your current partnerships, it will also fill you with inspiration from four examples of partnerships that started smaller and now are the high profile (and high impact) partnerships that we all know and love.

The first step is identify your shared purpose. This is the inspirational statement that defines why you are in partnership, and will anchor your partnership even during difficult times. Then, during the partnership ensure you are showing your partner the impact they are making together. Also develop senior level relationships, and ensure you build multiple relationships in the company, so you're not over dependent on one or two important people who could leave.

Once you are delivering an excellent partnership experience, the most important thing to do once is pitch new opportunities. Don’t save all of your exciting ideas for new business prospects! Keep engaging your partners with new growth opportunities. A really useful model for growing partnerships is called "Add a pillar" and it is used by Save the Children. It showed the different a company can partner with a charity. So the idea is you keep adding pillars to your partnership to make it stronger and more impactful.

Some of the most successful corporate-charity partnerships started small and grew over time. We hope these examples give you the inspiration and insight to look at your partnerships portfolio in a different light and take action today to identify and pitch growth opportunities, so together you can deliver more impact in a sustainable way.

1 – Macmillan and M&S

Macmillan were looking for a headline partner for the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning. M&S had been involved for some time, but the partnership was only in M&S cafés and didn’t really live up to the ‘World’s Biggest’ billing.

Macmillan decided to take a proposal to M&S to move the partnership into the Food Hall and expand into cause-related marketing promotions on relevant food products. It was a bold move, and they knew that not only would they have to come up with a compelling proposal, but they would have to be tough negotiators because they would be dealing with people who negotiated deals for a living!

The Macmillan team prepared ahead of time, ensuring they were agreed on what was important for the charity, and what was simply a ‘nice to have’. They also agreed at what point they would walk away – and they were prepared to do that. They worked as a team to negotiate with the team from M&S. It was quite stressful at times, but being prepared really helped. They managed to agree a deal that meant the partnership grew hugely over the next three years, to one that now raises millions each year.

2 – Innocent and Age UK

In 2005 Age UK had a partnership with Innocent. It involved little woolly hats being placed on Innocent smoothies that were then sold in Eat and Waitrose stores.

It is a very special cause-related marketing promotion. The hats are knitted by older people in local Age Concerns and the funds raised go straight back to those centres.

However, in the partnership raised £20,000, which was quite a modest return for considerable effort. Age UK believed there was significant potential to grow the partnership.

So they investigated the possibility of knitting more hats by involving more local centres. They estimated they could increase the scale five-fold in two years.

So in 2006 Age UK went to Innocent with an ambitious proposal to substantially grow the partnership. It involved a significant step-up in sales, marketing and project management.

Innocent were very excited by the proposal and shared their ambition for growth. So they took the promotion to Sainsbury’s who were pleased to put it in store.

The growth in success over the next two years was phenomenal. The number of hats grew from 80,000 in 2005 to 400,000 in 2007 and the contribution to Age UK grew from £20,000 to £200,000. Also the partnership won the Business in the Community Award for Cause Related Marketing in 2007.

The partnership between Age UK and Innocent continues today and has now raised over £2 million to keep older people warm in winter.

3 – Millennium Consulting and Raising Futures

The founder of Millennium Consulting, Phil Keates, was born in Kenya. Having seen the work of Raising Futures Kenya first hand, he decided to support the charity through his business. In the first few years, the relationship was purely philanthropic – the company donated each year because it was a nice thing to do.

When the Raising Futures Kenya team evaluated the relationship more seriously in 2019, they identified the shared purpose between the two organisations. Millennium Consulting provide financial software for companies. Raising Futures Kenya provide vocational training for Kenyan youth. Though what they do is very different, why they do it is identical – they both give people what they need to grow.

This was exactly what Millennium Consulting needed to commit to a more strategic partnership. Two years later, they have committed to supporting Raising Futures through mentoring of their in-country teams, client engagement through an annual golf day and they regularly make introductions to other like-minded businesses.

4 – WWF & Sodexo

WWF have worked with Sodexo globally since 2010 to address some of the key environmental issues linked to their business including carbon reduction, responsible sourcing, food waste and sustainable eating.

Fixing the food system is a core part of WWF’s strategy to stop the destruction of nature and to help it recover. It’s so important that we reconsider all the foods that we eat in order to reduce our carbon footprint. And that is exactly why WWF has teamed up with Sodexo helping them embed sustainable diets into their business models and encourage their chefs to more plant-based foods.

In 2018 the partnership was across the UK, France and the U.S. At that time the challenge with the partnership was there were great initiatives happening in each country, but how could they be connected to make a big holistic impact on the planet that would really drive change but also be best in class that could push the rest of the sector to get on board.

Then something happened. There was a change in leadership at Sodexo. A new person stepped into a global sustainability role. This was a game-changer for WWF, because this new person had a different perspective and really saw the value in what WWF were proposing based on the work in the UK.

The WWF team realised this was an opportunity to grow the partnership so used examples from other companies to inspire Sodexo. They also engaged colleagues beyond their immediate contacts in the company.

So the scope of the partnership started to change it became broader and they renewed in 2020 for three more years of partnering in 2020 really focusing on promising sustainable eating and reducing carbon emissions.

The key insight from this case study is:

The change in leadership was an opportunity
They built relationships based on trust
They engaged people at a senior level in Sodex
They recognised that changing the scope of the partnership would involve some frustrations on both sides, but got through that because they did it together.

In summary

We recommend you not only deliver a brilliant partnership experience, but you build in opportunities to grow throughout your partnership. If you want to discover more about exceptional account management and how to grow your partnerships, please join us on our Partnership Growth Crash Course on 23^rd, 25^th and 30^th November. Find out more here: https://www.remarkablepartnerships.com/event/partnership-growth-crash-course/

If there’s anything we can help with, we’d love to hear from you. Feel free to get in touch by emailing 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

What if the big win takes 18 months?

‍

High-value corporate partnerships take time to build. It could take anywhere from 6 to 18 months from identifying the right company to signing a partnership worth £250,000. If signing that agreement is the only moment you allow yourself to celebrate, you're going to spend a long time feeling as though you haven't succeeded. That's a long time to wait to feel like you're making progress. Instead, think about everything that needs to happen before the agreement is signed:

A warm introduction - that’s a win.
They responded and agreed to a meeting - that’s a win.
You had a brilliant first conversation and discovered their priorities and challenges - another win.
They agreed to a second meeting and wanted to involve more senior people - win.
You identified an opportunity where your charity could help them solve a genuine business challenge - win.
They told you they were interested - win.
You developed the proposal - win.
They gave you positive feedback - win.
They told you they wanted to partner - win.
You sent the draft partnership agreement - win.

‍

Every one of these moments matters, and every step in the journey is a little win.

‍

Progress is powerful

‍

Research by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer revealed that the biggest driver of motivation isn’t praise, money or recognition; it is making progress in meaningful work. Sharing and celebrating little wins reinforces your progress, because you write it down or say it out loud and your colleagues respond with encouragement.

‍

Celebrating little wins isn’t lowering your standards or pretending everything is going brilliantly; it’s sharing and recognising progress. High-value corporate partnerships aren’t built overnight. They are the result of hundreds of little wins that most people overlook.

‍

So, why don’t we shout about them?

‍

Sometimes, celebrating a little win can feel uncomfortable. We find ourselves questioning:

Is it really big enough to share?
Will people think I'm showing off?
What if the partnership doesn't happen?

‍

We can be so worried about appearing big-headed that we keep our progress to ourselves, but celebrating progress isn't boasting, and it isn't pretending that you've achieved something you haven't. It's simply recognising that something positive has happened and that you're one step closer to where you want to be.

‍

In fact, sometimes celebrating a win should attract attention.

‍

If somebody in your team has spent months developing a relationship and finally secures a meeting with a decision-maker, why wouldn't you celebrate that?
If a corporate prospect tells you that your proposition has completely changed the way they think about working with your charity, that's worth sharing.

‍

Communities should celebrate progress. Teams should encourage one another. Leaders should recognise the work happening long before the final result arrives.

‍

When we share those moments, something else happens: other people get behind us, and little wins create collective momentum.

‍

Big wins are built from little ones

‍

When we see an incredible corporate partnership announced, we see the result, but we don't see the introduction that happened 18 months earlier:

The first coffee.
The unanswered email.
The follow-up.
The conversation that uncovered a shared challenge.

‍

Those are the building blocks. So don't wait for the partnership agreement to be signed before you recognise how far you've come.

‍

Write the little wins down, and share them in your team meetings. Put them in your internal updates and tell your colleagues when something has moved forward. Celebrate other people's progress as enthusiastically as you'd want them to celebrate yours, because remarkable partnerships aren't built overnight. They're built through conversations, relationships, persistence, learning and hundreds of moments of progress that are very easy to overlook.

‍

Celebrate your little wins. They're the building blocks of remarkable partnerships.

‍

Behind every strategic corporate partnership are dozens, sometimes hundreds, of little wins that made it possible and yet we don't celebrate those nearly enough. The question is, why?

Learn More

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.