New Partnership Possibilities
Over the last few weeks, we’ve seencharities of all types and sizes create new partnerships and grow existing ones– often in record time. We keep coming back to these examples as a source ofinspiration and thought we’d share a few of them to keep your mind on what’spossible in the weeks ahead.
ChangingFaces’ exciting new partner:
ChangingFaces knows that for people with a visible difference, lockdown could have a significantimpact. In particular, people with a visible difference have spent timebuilding up their confidence to be a part of society, but now this isolationcould set them back, so that when lockdown lifts, they fear re-enteringthe world again.
They took tonew business approaches with vigour. With one of their prospects – a leadingmake-up brand – they were able to go from a cold approach to an agreed partnershipin a matter of one email, two meetings and eight days. The partnership willinclude a cause-related marketing promotion and some really inspiring digitalmedia activity.
The teamreflected on the importance of approaching companies based on shared purpose(in this case, empowering people to feel confident about their appearance), andhow the compelling narrative of what coronavirus means for their beneficiariesenabled them to mobilise faster than ever before.
LandAid’s£700,000+ corporate campaign:
LandAidunites businesses across the property, real estate and construction industriesto build accommodation for young people facing homelessness. With somepredicting that these sectors will be the hardest hitby coronavirus, it’sall too easy to see why their corporate partnerships team may have held offfrom speaking to partners about continuing their support.
What their team did instead was get in touch with their sense of what was possible and pivot from capital campaigns to providing emergency support. With individual communication with each partner, including Savills, Landsec and Grosvenor Estate, they have been able to secure around £700,000 of support in just three weeks.
They said ifthere was anything they’d learned from their success so far, it was to neverunderestimate your partners’ capacity for generosity whilst being sensitive oftheir struggles. There are no easy wins in corporate partnerships at the bestof times, but if your partners are loyal, believe in your work, and your team,they may surprise you, even now.
RichardHouse’s problem-solving partnership:
Thischildren’s hospice was able to secure a partnership with a major UK companybased on a national, digital, pro-bono project. They approached the company withthe shared purpose of keeping families and nurses active and were able tomobilise content along the theme of that purpose in just four days.
By joining the company’s employees with the hospice’s Family Services Team , they are sharing content suited for seriously ill children, as well as their siblings and carers.. This will be of huge value now, but the team are also excited that this partnership could last a long time and go a long way to delivering the charity’s purpose in the years to come.
BirminghamChildren’s Hospital’s #NHSSweatySelfie:
Based on an inspiration of their frontline staff averaging 20,000 steps a day, Birmingham Children’s Hospital teamed up with training apparel brand GymShark for a consumer engagement campaign. Doing their bit to keep fit, for every person sharing a post-exercise photo with the hashtag #NHSSweatySelfie, GymShark pledged a £5 donation up to the value of £175,000.
This campaign, live until the 30th of April serves to meet both the charity and the company’s purpose. By keeping fit, you are preventing illness, and they’re giving individuals an opportunity to align themselves with the values of both the company and the NHS frontline. This proves GymShark’s relevance and purpose even in uncertain times, creating that win-win partnership we are all looking for.
Thekey learning that we take from this partnership, is that when a company and acharity have a really strong fit, then the scale of the partnership is enormous.We also love that it demonstrates the power of a brilliant partnership idea.
All four teams listed above have doneincredible work, and we’ve spotted that they have three things in common:
- They’ve spoken about what coronavirus meansfor the people they help
- They’ve approached companies with a sharedpurpose
- They’ve acted quickly
If you want support on embracing any of these themes or to hear more about any of the examples listed, get in touch on team@remarkablepartnerships.com
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