The humble BandAid is much maligned. BandAid solutions have become synonymous with flimsy, short term responses. But anyone who’s ever had a hang nail or a paper cut will know how painful life can be without one. You don’t need a bandage or a visit to the doctor: the BandAid is the perfect solution.
The writer Tracy Gary in her book Inspired Philanthropy outlines four models of social change. Each of them have value in their own right, but the four models combined are a powerful portfolio for change. It’s an approach that has been warmly embraced by the CEO of the Alannah & Madeline Foundation, who is structuring the organisation’s work across all four domains.
Do you recognise your own organisation in one of these?
- Alleviation– providing responses to immediate needs. Likely to be more practical or tactical in nature such as food, shelter or medical aid.
- Building individual capability– supporting people directly to have agency, such as education, counselling or providing necessary resources.
- Fostering collective capability– helping communities to ensure that change is self-sustaining.
- Systems change– change the rules of the game to stop the issue happening in the first place.
When you recognise where your non-profit is operating, you’ll have a better chance of identifying the types of corporate partners that are the best fit for you. You’ll be able to manage their expectations and align your needs more accurately to get a stronger, more valuable relationship.
Alleviation
Many businesses are attracted by organisations who work in alleviating immediate needs. It’s simple to see results and the practical nature of the responses typically offer active volunteering or participation. For example, Keely’s Cause provides iPads to autistic children to help with their learning and development. It’s simple, easy to communicate and the partner can see the immediate impact of their support. Make-a-Wish provides inspiring experiences to sick children. But the bigger corporates who work to an ESG framework may love the volunteering component but need much deeper impact reporting to hit their metrics. If your work is mostly in alleviating immediate needs, you won’t be able to outline the lifetime impact. Your focus should be on the positive PR, uplifting emotional stories and volunteering activities instead.
Individual or collective capability
If your work is around building individual or collective capability you might be offering education or skills training. For example, Beacon Foundation helps young people at risk of dropping out of school and give them a pathway to future employment. The Foundation supports parents schools to retain students and integrate work pathways into their learning programs. The corporate partnerships then become program partners in building workforce skills. They are active participants and ultimate beneficiaries, as they are filling their workforce needs. You wouldn’t pitch a partnership that focuses on PR or feelgood stories as the businesses are clearly keen to make a bigger impact that integrates with their core skills and needs.
Systems change
Organisations working in systems change or long term impact are often attacking some of the thorniest or more controversial issues in society. That could include such areas as gender based violence, indigenous rights, or asylum seeker pathways. There could be organisations working on longitudinal health research that might take years to come to fruition. If you’re trying to change the system itself, not just alleviate immediate needs, then you’ll attract a different kind of corporate partner. They may be the ones who are committed to long term social impact for their ESG metrics. Or they might have personal affinity with the cause. But it will be no use pitching your typical gold, silver, bronze packages to such partners, as they are rarely interested in a short term sugar hit. The best approach here is to find meaningful alignment with your mission and the results you aim to achieve. It will be a bit like Vegemite- some will love it, others will hate it, but you won’t have anyone half- hearted about it.
If you’re lucky to be working across all four types of social change, that’s great. You’ll be able to attract a variety of partners that are attracted by different aspects of your value proposition. if you work in less than four, then it’s best to assess which are the main areas of strength and choose partners that are the best fit. Save yourself heaps of time, energy and resources by targeting the corporates that are truly interested in what you offer.