 Good Corporate Partners
By Ed Barker
Director, Corporate Partnerships, Earthwatch Institute
Any new job
requires a few months of transition. New names, new acronyms, and new
challenges regularly present themselves. But my transition from the role
of the nonprofit consultant into the realm of nonprofit organizations
receiving assistance represented a particularly unique challenge.
Applying the theory of corporate partnerships to real live organizations
is often more difficult than it appears.
After nearly two years as the director of corporate partnerships for a
major international environmental organization, I’m beginning to have
the perspective on the magnitude of the task. The environmental
challenges that confront us are enormous, and not one of them is
trending in a good direction. Global fisheries around the world are on
the verge of collapse. Pollution
– of the air, land, and oceans
–
is
dramatic. Deforestation in critical parts of the world is on the rise,
and nearly 20,000 species of plants, animals, and fungi are at risk of
extinction. And climate change is exacerbating everything.
Despite this gloomy situation, my organization finds itself at the nexus
of two important trends. Corporations, considered by some to be
contributing to many of these environmental problems, are also taking an
increased interest in them. At the same time, they are looking more and
more to the nonprofit sector for help delivering on corporate social
responsibility commitments. During the past 18 months, we have seen
remarkable growth in our corporate partnerships, and I expect that
growth to continue.
This represents the first lesson of my first two years
–
to observe trends
carefully. By asking what is happening in the outside world that is
relevant for our organization, we learned that according to a recent
survey by Dalberg Global Development Advisors, 88% of companies that had
never before partnered with a nonprofit group voiced interest in doing
so. Some of our partners are new to the game of working with nonprofits,
particularly environmental nonprofits.
Of course, not all trends are positive, but even negative trends can
represent opportunity. We learned that by helping our corporate
partners to stop employee attrition we can make our
relationship more essential to our partners. For example, we have
created employee fellowships that allow key employees to participate in Earthwatch research expeditions.
In this kind of circumstance, we saw evidence of a second key lesson,
one that is validated by the Dalberg study. In essence, the most
successful partnerships are those in which the nonprofit partner returns
real value to the business by helping the corporation address its
business objectives. Nonprofits must think about how they can help their
partners succeed, and they should think about how those partnerships can
enhance what they do.
Finally, we’ve learned that planning for success and reporting on it are
the best ways to grow and develop successful partnerships. It seems
logical, of course, but this is where we’ve struggled the most. Often, a
corporate-nonprofit partnership can begin through the work of a highly
charismatic individual or a strong relationship between two people
representing a company and a nonprofit. To optimize our partnerships,
we’ve had to learn how to move beyond good vibes, focus on good
outcomes, and plan for the resources necessary
–
human and financial
– to
get them. When we spend the time planning and developing the idea and
the ways we’ll measure and report its success
– like any other business
program – we find it easier to stay on track.
In the end, it’s the success that matters, because it leads to
confidence on both sides, higher levels of trust between partners, and
greater opportunity for more work together
– and in my case, cleaner
water, healthier ecosystems, and energized people ready to take action.
Ed Barker is a former senior consultant at
Community Wealth Ventures, and currently works as director of corporate
partnerships for Earthwatch Institute. He spends lots of time in
airports and occasionally stops for the night in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. He can be reached at
ebarker@earthwatch.org.
If you would like to share your first-person account of your work as a
social entrepreneur and change agent, email Christina Ng at
cng@communitywealth.com.
Please provide your name, contact information and a brief summary of
your story.
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