Beyond the Donation: 7 Steps to Getting the Most from a Corporate/Charitable Partnership

Many great articles stress the importance of corporate giving though few effectively outline the benefits to a partnering company.

Most charities work hard to raise funds and drive programs congruent with their missions; the savvy ones also know how to help drive a corporate partner’s bottom line.

Look at American Airlines’ 26-year history of support of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure in the US. As the “official airline” of the charity, they have pledged $8 million in breast cancer research fundraising over eight years via their AA Golf and Tennis Weekend, sponsorship of the Komen Race for the Cure event, gift card donations and other programs. They tied a piece of their fundraising to a “Promise Grant” supporting specific and innovative research at one of the leading cancer centres in the country. And they branded two of their aircraft with pink ribbons to tell the world about their efforts.

This is no random show of support; American obviously knows that their support gives them a competitive edge.

So, how can a smart company make the most of their strategic philanthropy?

• Choose wisely: avoid the public perception of “pinkwashing” by partnering with a charity that aligns with your business objectives. Plan for longer-term cumulative support rather than a one-off donation that will be forgotten by next year.
• Add a new layer to the marketing mix, part 1: use your association with the charity to connect with your customers and employees. Find avenues to build public service messaging into your corporate communications, whether you’re talking about environmental issues, disease prevention or arts promotion.
• Add a new layer to the marketing mix, part 2: does the charity publish newspaper supplements with charitable discount rates for corporate advertisers? Do they launch public education campaigns? Find out how you can leverage these initiatives to promote your partnership. Golf Town did this to great effect in their partnership with Prostate Cancer Canada.
• Capitalize on the charity’s audiences: ask how you can connect with the charity’s donors, volunteers, clients/patrons and directors. Build a complementary marketing strategy to engage these groups.
• Capitalize on the charity’s network: what other corporate partnerships are in play that you could leverage? Begin a conversation with other companies using your common philanthropic support as the starting point.
• Social media: use the charity’s message to add valuable content to your Facebook or Twitter strategy. Find out how you can build your message into the charity’s social media strategy.
• Go beyond the money: invite your senior executives to volunteer on the charity’s board or advisory committee as an extension of your partnership and as a further gesture of your corporate commitment.

These efforts can be build customer loyalty, increase staff morale and introduce the company’s offerings to new consumers. Not a bad return for a modest but sincere investment in strategic philanthropy.

Strong at Heart: Making Social Media Work

As the doting father of a six-year-old, I’m regularly met with requests to go see the latest CGI-produced 3D blockbuster kids movie. Today’s pitch was for Despicable Me, featuring cute yellow villains in overalls and mad scientist goggles. While I usually relent to these appeals, I also scan the review in advance to find out if the story will be entertaining, or whether I should bring a book along.

In short, you can use all the bells and whistles at your disposal but if your product doesn’t have good content, it’s not likely to have much impact.

Social media provides a plethora of bells and whistles to the nonprofit sector and corporations alike. Some launch Facebook pages or CEO blogs because it’s “what’s done these days”; others formulate a strategy. When a forward-thinking charity does the latter—particularly with the right corporate support—the results can be impressive. I recently came across such an example.

Last year, the American organization WomenHeart partnered with Bayer HealthCare to launch Strong@Heart, a social marketing campaign promoting cardiovascular health in women. Check out a program overview from WomenHeart CEO Lisa Tate and Robert Schumm, marketing director for Bayer’s Consumer Care Division.

What I like about this program is its comprehensive approach to engagement of their target demographic, but also its transparency about its goals from both partners:

For WomenHeart, a national organization dedicated to promoting women’s heart health through advocacy, community education and patient support: heart disease education for women to help inform conversations with their physicians, and advocacy training for women to share in their communities.

For Bayer: encouraging women to ask their doctors about a possible aspirin regimen to ensure their heart health, and sales of their Aspirin product.

The core of the program was the Strong@Heart Facebook page, which currently sits at over 28,000 fans and features a risk assessment tool (with the tagline of “learn more about how Bayer Aspirin can help”), Q&A guide for patients to use in discussion with their doctors and patient testimonials. It also included the option of receiving a free HeartSafe “pill tote” so you can take your aspirin with you everywhere. Schumm claims that they had more than 65,000 requests for this limited offer.

The program was supported by a PR campaign, satellite radio promotion, a TV spot on the TNT network and placements in e-newsletters from eDiets and Better Homes & Gardens, as well as newsletter campaigns from Bayer and WomenHeart.

While neither Schumm nor Tate commented on specificities of their partnership, one can surmise that Bayer assumed the cost of the social media campaign (including slick Facebook site content), the PR campaign and ad placements. While not clearly stated in WomenHeart’s press release, it’s probable these investments were made by Bayer over and above their $100,000 educational grant to WomenHeart.

So, what are the important elements in a mutually beneficial partnership between a nonprofit and a corporation?

1. Like-minded partners, transparent goals: both sides should be working towards complementary goals, and should be clear with each other and the public about their intentions.
2. Know your audience: target messaging and media placement accordingly.
3. Activations beyond the charitable investment: media and advertising support should not detract from the corporation’s philanthropic support of the charity. Financial support is key; value-adds such as the HeartSafe program gave the target audience a conversation-starting keepsake.
4. Comprehensive use of social media: create valuable content, such as public education vehicles, that your audience will share with their networks to generate further support. Create a promotional plan (e.g., for regular Twitter updates or Facebook message blasts) that drives your audience to specific pieces of content within your campaign period to keep your message fresh.
5. Measure and evaluate: monitor media and social media traffic, as well as anecdotal response from your audience, to create results reporting that’s both qualitative and quantitative.

Of course, not every partnership will have the corporate capacity of a Bayer to invest in significant media behind a social media-driven public education campaign. What’s important is an agreed mutual understanding of what the nonprofit and corporate parties will bring to the table, and how they can use the basic tools of social media to reach their target audience and make an impact in people’s lives.

The Strategic Philanthropy Payoff

I once pitched a major men’s clothing retailer on a partnership with a national men’s health charity. Instead of entertaining the possibilities of engaging their customers and staff with a philanthropic effort tied directly to their business, they informed me that they would rather make a donation to another health charity because “the CEO of their U.S. parent company was once afflicted with that condition.” A valid reason to be sure, but also a missed opportunity to bolster their business.

Unfortunately, stories like this are common. In my experience, it can be an interesting challenge to impress upon large companies the potential for brand-building that’s inherent in supporting a great cause. Cutting a cheque to support a worthwhile program is a wonderful thing, but there’s so much more to be gained from building a mutually beneficial, long-lasting partnership.

Some companies really get it. Becel has a number of partnership programs with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and Canada Safeway appeals to customers, employees and the public across western Canada by partnering with select national charities as well as community-based organizations.  But by and large, corporations generally do not build strategic philanthropy into their business plans and their marketing and communications executives don’t have a lot of time or resources to invest in the effort.

What’s exciting is the potential for growth in this area. Imagine a corporate culture where every Canadian company had at least one solid charitable partner. Marketing plans would be devised in consultation with the charity to identify and leverage opportunities throughout the year. The company would pledge a specific amount of support (say, one per cent of pre-tax profits annually), generated by a number of fundraising programs and straight corporate support. The charity could leverage the partnership to build public support for their cause. And the company would reap the rewards of a heightened public image. Talk about a win-win!

In my next post I’ll outline what constitutes a great partnership between a company and a charity—and what a savvy company stands to gain from the effort.