Charity-business partnerships often focus on simple transactions (such as sponsorship or small donations) or short term collaborations (such as charity of the year schemes). But they can and should be about much more. There are so many ways charities and business can work together for mutual benefit and these are most effective when the relationship is long term.

With ever increasing emphasis in the business world on “corporate social responsibility” and “environmental, social and governance (ESG)”, even in a recession there should be plenty of scope for exploring deeper and sustained partnerships between charities and businesses.

For charities the benefits can include increased funding, reduced costs, improved skills and greater profile/reach amongst beneficiaries and supporters.

For businesses, the benefits can include enhanced brand image, increased staff morale and loyalty and greater reach into existing or new customer bases. In the end, most businesses get involved with charities because it is good for their business, rather than out of pure philanthropic motivations.

Therefore, finding shared interests and objectives is always the most important factor in whether charity-business partnerships succeed and persist. Taking time to explore this common ground, build trust and understand each others motivations and objectives is critical. Of course, there are risks and ethical considerations; charities in particular need to take care to do their due diligence and review the relevant Charity Commission guidance carefully, before committing to partnerships with businesses.

Through this process of establishing common ground and trust both the charity and the business can explore a range of options for partnership working, including:

• Sponsorship - where the business buys publicity by being associated with a specific charitable activity or event. Note that this is not a donation but a purchase of “advertising” and therefore must be treated as such for tax purposes by both partners.

• Cash and in-kind donations - where the business donates money and/or goods, services or premises that the charity needs, without significant strings attached (otherwise it isn’t a donation, it is sponsorship and the tax treatment will be different).

• Employee fundraising - where the employees of the business engage in fundraising activities for the charity and/or donate personally to the charity (e.g. through payroll giving schemes).

• Employee volunteering - this could be skills based volunteering (where the business’ employees help out in areas related to their professional expertise (such as finance, HR, event management etc) or more general volunteering (e.g. team building events where a whole team from the business volunteers to help with a specific charity project).

• Cause related marketing - where there is a shared mission and customer/beneficiary base, mutually beneficial approaches to marketing and communications can be developed (which often include the charity getting a share of income from the business’ sales, but can also include other shared objectives, such as getting impactful messages out to shared, target customer/beneficiary segments).

These options are available to all charities and businesses regardless of size and type, recognising, of course, that there needs to be sufficient capacity on both sides to establish, maintain and grow each element within the partnership.

If you would like to find out more about corporate fundraising or our fundraising services more generally, please contact us at julian@almondtreeconsulting.co.uk to arrange free initial telephone discussion