Winning Corporate Partnerships | Linda Garnett & Sharon Dann - Stellar Partnerships

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Hi, I'm Jessie Ballantyne and I love grants. I sold my house to fund the launch of the Grants Hub because I truly wanted to make grants easier to find. In the very early days, I ended up running the Grants Hub from the ICU ward of a children's hospital. Let's just say I'm committed to the cause of helping you find grants. If you're looking to get real with grants to learn what works and what doesn't, to hear from grant experts from across the country and have some fun while we do it, then Grants Uncovered is the podcast for you. Do you know something that caught my eye last week? A $250,000 not for profit partnership opportunity with Target. I've invited Linda and Sharon on Today from Stellar Partnerships to talk more about this opportunity and corporate partnerships in general. As you know, having a diverse range of revenue streams is vital for not for profit financial sustainability. While grants can tick off one stream, corporate partnerships is another often untapped or not considered revenue stream altogether. But corporate partnerships go beyond the funding itself and standalone financial benefit and can seriously raise the profile of the not for profit partner. Linda and Sharon have combined experience of more than 30 years in corporate partnerships. So make the most of this incredible opportunity to learn how you can successfully tap into corporate partnerships and shoot your not for profit onto a new growth trajectory. Thank you, Linda and Sharon, for joining us on Grants Uncovered.

Thrilled to be with you, Jessie.

Thanks for having us.

What is something that most people wouldn't know about corporate partnerships?

I think that it's their time to shine. Linda and I have been beating the drum about corporate partnerships for a long time now, and they generally sit in fundraising, but they tend to be a little bit misunderstood. You know that they. It's not simply that a corporate partner gives you money to do your great work. You know, corporate partnerships have really evolved, especially over the last year with COVID that now it's much more about a charity and a partner actually collaborating together. And I think when that collaboration happens, that's when the really amazing partnerships occur and when the, you know, that huge impact happens for a charity as well.

How would you define a corporate partnership?

I think I refer a partnership as a, as a marriage and not a quick fix. You know, if you think about how partnerships are all about relationships and especially if you're thinking about how partners are now looking to collaborate with charities, that's a much deeper relationship than a funder giving a charity money. And so if we think about a marriage, you know, you've got two People who are coming together and they're going to, you know, they start creating value together and that might be that they, you know, they're investing in houses. It could be that they have a child together. You know, that's something that they can't do on their own. I think often, though, that people view corporate partnerships not like a marriage and a little bit more like friends with benefits, that, you know, that they're in it for one reason and one reason only, and that could be just to get the money and not about that kind of greater value that they can create together. So we see it absolutely partnership as, you know, that deep relationship, really getting to know the partner and working towards some partnership goals together.

Do you find that corporates and the charities end up achieving more together than they would have by themselves? Like, there's sort of unexpected outcomes from it on both sides?

Yeah, absolutely. We've got a really good example of gsk, who worked with Save the Children over in the uk, and they have just had a phenomenal partnership where they started working together on a really small basis, you know, a couple of hundred thousand dollars going to program funding. And Save the Children were able to really, I guess, challenge GSK around what else they could do together. And they set a really ambitious target for the partnership around, we want to save 1 million children's lives. From that initial discussion, there was a steering committee that was set up between Save the Children and gsk, and it meant that they had somebody from the research and development of GlaxoSmithKline. It also meant that they had the maternal child health specialist from Save the Children in this collaboration group, and they worked out that they were able to produce a. The thing that, you know, Listerine that we've all used in our mouths as the mouthwash. GSK had been able to work out that they could put Listerine as a gel, but it was an antibacterial gel that didn't need to be refrigerated. It could just be packaged as a gel. When the maternal child health nurse found out about that, they were able to say, well, hang on, we know that one of the biggest causes of children dying is of sepsis from cutting the umbilical cord in unsanitary conditions. So now that product is now rolled out across all developing countries to be able to sanitize the umbilical cord. And so rather than GSK funding a program for 200,000, they have been able to achieve that huge, huge goal of saving a million lives. And there's lots of money in that partnership as well, you know, I think at the last count it was about £70 million now that they've been able to raise through it. And I think that was, you know, that's that, that real collaboration where instead of the, you know, looking at your corporate partner like a bank, as in, you know, you've got money, please give me money, fund me to do my great programs, and actually thinking about the special skills and expertise and the strengths that both organizations have to work together on some of those core issues that are affecting all societies.

I mean, that's a game changer. If that partnership hadn't happened, that idea probably would have never come about, or that solution. That's an incredible example of where it goes beyond the grant. Sometimes I say we want to go beyond the grant. And this is a great example of that, where corporate partnerships are just delivering that. And in that case with JSK and Save the Children, that's like, that's just an incredible game changer across the developing world.

Yeah, absolutely. And there's, you know, there's, there's huge ones happening. And Linda's got a great example about Tesco in the uk. Do you want to talk about what Tesco is doing as well? Because I just think it's phenomenal and we'd love to see more of it.

Tesco, for anyone who hasn't visited the uk, is kind of the equivalent of Coles and Woolies all rolled together. It's a massive grocery retailer and it has something like a phenomenal number of 80 million customer visits every week. That's an enormous one. So if you think about when you go to the supermarket and they ask you, you flip your loyalty card and pretty much they know everything about you. They know. They know that you're buying donuts for breakfast, they know how often you're buying gin and those entertainer packs of Doritos, all of those sort of things. They know so much about us. But Tesco are using that for good with a bunch of their health charities in the uk, so Cancer Council, heart research and diabetes research in the uk. And these are relationships they've had for a while. And they've had staff fundraising, they've had events, all the sort of classic things you normally think about, corporate partnerships, fundraising partnerships. But they set a different goal and they said, you know what? We want to make the average shopping basket healthier, so what can we do? So rather than give them lots more money, which they continue to do, they've said, okay, what we're going to do is help you access our Data. So if you've got 80 million customers visiting you every week, you know a lot of data. And so your sample size, if you're a health research charity, it's enormous because that's always the challenge. Do I get a sample size that's big enough? And not only is it, it's de identified but, but they can go down to the postcode of who's buying what and more frequently and what sort of person are they? Are they in a household, are they solo? So that if you're diabetes or if you're heart research, or if you're cancer research, you can do interventions almost down at the street level to be able to change behavior and make healthier choices and encourage people to be healthier. So it's a really interesting way of using what is really good, what is really skillful and strong about a particular corporate over and above their money to make real social change. And we get really excited about these things because we tell people, if you lead with the value, if you lead with the impact, then the money will come, don't be afraid of it. So don't be afraid that you're leading with, am I getting enough money out of it? You build the relationship, lead with the value and be ambitious about your impact and then the money will be so much bigger as a result.

Is it that overlap of values that becomes key to the whole partnership opportunity? Like when someone's looking for a partner, the value overlap must be a huge factor in their consideration.

It is values and finding those synergies of what do we have in common? But I think one of the key aspects of the partnerships we've just mentioned is ambition, real ambition. Can we do something other than just fund a program which is great, and if you're a really tiny ngo, then that might be all that you can do for the time being. But can you describe what that future might look like if you could work together and what does that mean when you work back from there rather than play too small? And what we're encouraging everyone in an Australian non profit sector to be is to be more ambitious, to be more confident about that, because corporates are really looking for something that stretches them and not just a funding application. So absolutely trust that there will be money there, but lead with the ambition and the confidence first, because you'll be inspiring them, you'll be inspiring them about not just your purpose, about the success that you could own together.

If we use this target opportunity that you're managing as an example, so we've got $250,000 a year in cash, essentially, plus all the other benefits that will come with this partnership opportunity for a charity with Target. What is Target looking for through this process?

It's a wonderful opportunity, isn't it, Jessie? It's amazing. It's a big headline figure, so I can understand why there's been such a level of interest in this. But there are more of these type of partnerships out there. They're just not in a publicly listed pipeline. But what Target are really looking for is a way to invest in something that is meaningful for their audience, which is predominantly women and families. Not exclusively, but their loyal customer base is women and families. So they want to do something that really invests in something that would change their lives, something that will be meaningful to them. And I think that's something very genuine. It's not a sort of a quick fix. It's something that says to their audience, you know, we hear you, we understand you and we're there for you as well, which I think is fantastic. So what Target is looking for is people who are prepared to come on that journey and say, what is the impact that we can create? What is the change we can create in the world for women and families that are our core constituency?

Now, this one closes on Monday, so people have still got a little bit of time. I think it's 5pm, is it, Linda? On Monday?

That's correct, absolutely. So you still got a few. A few days.

Yes, that's it. Yep. A few hard days of work. If people want to go for this opportunity on top of the money, why else is this a good opportunity for a charity?

Because Target brings so much else to the table. So the money is great, you know, customer fundraising, you know, staff donations, et cetera. That's great. But think of who Target is. Target is an iconic retailer. It has a presence nationally, it has a physical store footprint, it has an online presence and it has a bunch of channels. It talks to its audience very regularly, whether that's through email or newsletters or PR or influencers and so forth. So if you're a charity, do you want to share in that conversation with the audience? Would you like to reach that sort of footprint? Do you want to tap into the skills that Target has? You know, all of their marketing skills, their organisational skills, their PR, etc. Would you like to share in that? So there are so many different buckets of value you can get from a relationship like this. So thinking beyond the money and thinking about a whole suite of different value, once you actually get to know the.

Organisation, the brand awareness that they have got across Australia is a huge opportunity for charities to be tapping into. And I think anyone who's started something from scratch, whether you're a business listener here, a social enterprise or you're a charity, in this case, that this opportunity is relevant for building your brand from scratch is a massive process and it takes a very long time to get the brand awareness that Target's got. I think, you know, it's a, it's a globally recognized brand. I think having that opportunity to tap into a brand as big as Target and their lists and their, their website traffic, all of that, that is just a massive opportunity beyond the cash itself in this case.

Absolutely. And we can be really smart about it. And if you're a small charity, just piggyback off the channels that they have. What a great opportunity.

Think about how much money charities are spending on direct marketing at the moment for their fundraising, you know, to direct market to 10, 20, 30,000. How much money does that cost them versus what target can bring as an audience here. Like, it's absolutely invaluable for a charity, you know, it's huge.

It is huge. What makes an application stand out in this case, when you're receiving so many, or for the corporates who are reading them and looking at short lists, I'm assuming in this case, what makes an application stand out?

I guess what we'd really love to see is people actually read the brief and understand it and make sure that you read the guidelines.

We want to read the guidelines again, like grant.

Funny that, isn't it? It's a common thing. It does say interest in women and families. So if you do three legged donkeys, please don't call us, please don't send.

I'm sure you know there's probably a corporate partnership relevant for three legged donkeys, but it's not this one.

That's absolutely right. There is, as Sharon said, there's someone for everyone. It's just maybe not this one. So please read the brief and be clear. And the other thing that makes it stand out is have you spent the time doing your research and figuring out what is the perspective of your target, in this case the target, what's important to them? If you understand where their audiences are and how they talk about themselves. Yes, they're asking lots of questions about you, about your programs, but can you understand? Put yourself in their shoes and figure out what's important. So if it's tone of voice, you know that this is an iconic retailer that has a very distinct tone of voice and a way of speaking to its audience very regularly. Do you have, for example, great content that you can offer to augment that conversation? Do you have emotional content, inspiring stories, great storytelling, and can you provide examples of that? Do you have programs that really speak directly to that specified audience? So stand out in the right ways and show that you've taken the time to understand them and respond to them. Otherwise you kind of come around like the world's worst speed date. You know, talking about yourself all the time. Yes, you're providing valuable information, but really show that you've actually understand where, where that particular corporate is and where it's coming from.

Do you have any tips for people who may still be part way through their expression of interest? This one's been open for a couple of weeks. So, you know, often people spend and they should be spending a significant amount of time preparing their expression of interest. Do you have any tips for people?

We provided an email contact and offered to have direct conversations with people who are interested in applying. And for those who are unsure about whether they fit, please do take that opportunity. I know sometimes it's not always on offer, but we wanted to make that offer to anyone to have those direct conversations. So clarify it if you're unsure, test it or send us an email and we can give you a bit of guidance as well. So if you are still finessing that expression of interest and you've got any gaps and you're winging it a bit, please feel free to reach out and drop us a line by email. Other than that, just think about being succinct and clear and aligned with the brief. We don't want pages and pages. So if you can talk about your audience in a really clear and succinct way, it shows us your confidence, it shows us you're not sort of like fluffing around trying to find a fit. Just be really clear and succinct about what you want and how it fits.

If someone has submitted an expression of interest early on in the process, maybe, and now they're listening to this podcast and they're thinking I really should have done this or that in my expression of interest. Could they resubmit? Like, is that an opportunity for them?

They're most welcome to resubmit. Just please send it to us and make clear it's an update and we'll discard the earlier one. But if you do have three legged donkeys, please don't, don't resubmit those ones.

However, perhaps if it's women and Children or families, then perhaps they should resubmit.

That's right. If they want to make amendments, it doesn't mean that I'd like to see sort of six different versions from you, but if it's something that you go, oh, I've got a burning issue now, I realise I want to focus on that, that's fine, just resend it. Make sure you do it before the deadline.

Great. Now, this is only one opportunity. You, Linda and Sharon manage a lot of these opportunities across the year. So this is just one corporate partnership opportunity that we're talking about today. As an example, what other ones do you have in the pipeline like this with other businesses?

I think that's the thing that there are, you know, let's not just talk about corporate and let's talk about business as well. Because there's 2.3 million businesses in Australia. That's a lot of businesses. And most businesses will support a charity. You know, Linda and I do a newsletter every week. We've been doing it for a couple of years now. And I honestly, I don't think that there has been many weeks when we haven't had something to talk about, about, you know, something a business is doing with a charity. Every single week for a couple of years, you know, there's new partnerships being announced. There's. I mean, there's things in there like this. This week I've just read IKEA gave save the children $100,000 for one of their indigenous programs. And you know, there's no link on IKEA's website. It just went through to members and it was a member triggered donation, you know, but these things are happening all of the time. So, you know, if you're not in corporate partnerships, then I think you're missing out on a big opportunity there because, you know, there's a lot more businesses than what there are charities. And there definitely is a corporate partner for every charity in Australia. I am always the old romantic and I always say that, but there really is. There's more businesses than charities to go around. So, you know, can you get yourself up to be a part of this, a part of what's happening right now?

I know you've shared a story before about Are youe okay? And their partnership that they were doing with the Yellow Pages. Do you want to share a little bit about that, that partnership that happened?

Yeah, I love this. This is one of my favorites, Jessie. And it shows that a charity can be really, really smart about what's going to shift the dial for their particular mission. So I Know the headline on the target expression of interest is a big carrot at the moment, but for something like are you okay? They're all about awareness, about stimulating a conversation and breaking down the stigma around mental health. And what I loved was a partnership that was struck a couple of years ago between Are you okay? And the good old fashioned yellow pages and Census. You know the ones that big yellow brick that landed on your doorstep.

Yes. On the weekend. I got mine. Yep, it's still on the nature strip. I think make it into the house at some stage.

I think mine's propping up my filing cabinet here.

That's all right for all sorts of things. But they do have a great front cover and back cover.

That's right. You see, they're seeing them. And there's about four and a half million of the things that still go out in hard copy. Plus on Census, you know, the online search as well. So what a wonderful opportunity that R U OK took to be on the front page of four and a half million yellow pages to reach that audience and to be well positioned on Census's online search page. And I looked a few weeks ago, I noticed that there was another edition that Ruaok had done with Census Yellow pages which was a white pages specifically for all the tradies, the small businesses, which again is another hard to reach audience. You know, mostly men talking about mental health. So how smart would that be? Rather than ask for money and say we're going to buy a bunch of billboard advertising or TV or radio ads, piggyback off someone that actually has the audience, piggyback off someone that has the channels and you can have a far greater reach and a far greater impact than you could previously. And I know that partnership has a number of different aspects to it, which involves cash, which involves program support, but how smart is that for an awareness charity to go? You know what? Actually the biggest bang for buck we can have is to get reach. And in a similar way, Beyond Blue struck up a partnership last year in the middle of a Covid year with Australia Post. And now if you see the Australia Post vans going up and down the street, which is my street is quite a lot, knocking on the doors pretty often. There's a Beyond Blue logo and information on the back of every Australia Post van. Again, a really smart way of stimulating the conversation about something so important to everyone and reaching a good community in a way that they couldn't do by themselves.

R U okay. Did a launch last year as well in a Covid year with KitKat and I just if you think about KitKat's tagline, KitKat is take a break. Take a break. Yeah. And on each KitKat pack, now you've got, are you okay? So, you know, take a break, have a quick chat. Are you okay? Just really good alignment from both of those there. So I'd love to see the impact that that creates as well. But, you know, as Linda was saying, it's about getting rid of that stigma of mental health and having the conversation. And I think they're, you know, that's priceless for them because they're able to, you know, combine both of those, the strengths of both of those organizations to make that impact.

That's that perfect marriage that you were talking about earlier. You know, like, that's a great example of that where they're achieving something together that they couldn't have done on their own.

Yeah, exactly, yeah.

What advice would you have for charities wanting to get started on a corporate partnership like this? Like, is it go and approach a business or a corporate directly or do they wait, Should a charity wait until there's an expression of interest process? Like, how does that work?

Oh, get started, get started. Please do it now. Jessie. It's a bit, I always think it's a bit like, you know, the advice on should I buy real estate? It's like the best year was always last year. So just get started, I think. And Sharon's got some thoughts on how you might get started.

Yeah, I think do get started, but I also think don't just get out there and start talking to businesses. Like, make sure you do a little bit of the foundation work first. If you just want to go out there and talk to a business, but you don't know what you need from them other than money. You don't know why you're talking to them. You don't know whether you're aligned. So, you know, you haven't thought about what their perspective is. What you're offering is, you know, whether your audiences do align, whether you've got things that that business might be really interested in, then a conversation doesn't go very far. I think, you know, lots of people who get involved in corporate partnerships have done sales, you know, and they've done business development. And I think with business development, you, you know, Your measured your KPIs around that numbers of activity, you know, how many calls you make and how many meetings, etc. And corporate partnerships don't work like that. You know, they're not, they're not transactional in a normal. When you sell In a normal product, then you can be transactional, you know, and you can go for numbers. But partnerships are much more strategic. And so I think, you know, my best advice is just think about why do you need a corporate partner? You know, what is it going to do for your organization? And then that second key foundation is what have you got to offer? You know, why are they going to be interested in talking to you? You know, how can you help that business and why specifically are you talking to that business? So that I think if they, if a charity can spend a little bit more time up front, so, you know, get not getting out there and doing the activity, we're actually just going, okay, let's, let's, let's think through what our strategic goals are and how a partnership helps that, then they'll be much more successful in the long run. Just takes a little bit of time to set up. Yep.

In practical terms, is that a conversation? Is it emails? Is it a printed document? Is it something that looks beautifully and it's all beautifully designed? Is it a PDF, like, what does that look like for people wanting to sort of take that next step?

It's a piece of thinking, really. It's a system. So yes, it's lovely to have a glossy document, but if the glossy actually address those key issues and you don't know why you're talking to that particular target, then it's not going to be as successful. So if you're in front of a business, a new business that you've just prospected from cold, can you answer the questions of what are you doing? Why now? And why specifically you talking to me about it? And if you can't answer those questions, then you're not prepared. So we talk about a system in place that puts the foundations in place and makes them really solid. So some of the work before you even have that conversation is done internally to be really clear about your organizational strategic needs, why you need a partner and where they fit, what you've got to offer, what your risk appetite is. Am I talking to the right one? Am I comfortable with this type of organization? You know, some things are a good fit for your organization, some things not. And have I got all my ducks in a row in being really clear about what I have to offer, what makes me special? Otherwise you can't answer those questions. You can't answer that question specifically about why me? Why am I talking to you? Corporate X. And that's where it often falls down and where we see a lot of people default to pretty standardized, you know, Documents that talk about themselves all the time and then land on someone's desk and they go, but yeah, you haven't asked me about my priorities, you haven't asked me about what's important or whether that even fits. So should I pay attention to that? And we were talking to a large corporate, a large corporate retailer only a couple of months ago about their perspective during the COVID Covid situation where they received a lot of applications from charities but none of them really stood out because they actually hadn't taken the time to ask that question about what does it matter to you, what's really important to you, what are your prior and can I tailor something to be able to meet those priorities? And so a whole bunch went in the bin, even though they were glossy, they were well produced, some even had videos so they'd spend a lot of money on it, but they hadn't answered the really key questions. And that's where you really need to go back and think internally. Get your ducks in a row, get a system in place and then when you actually go out and have those conversations, they'll be more meaningful and much more successful.

Look, we've covered three legged donkeys and getting your ducks in a row. We've covered all the, all the animal bases here. Honestly, I think it's really great to get some practical tips for, you know, charities wanting to delve into this area and, you know, when do you start? Sort of last year. But this is a, something that's such a practical way that charities can build on their revenue stream, diversify their revenue streams. So I really appreciate you taking the time to come on to Grants Uncovered today. Linda and Sharon, really wonderful to have such expertise getting shared widely across Australia.

It's a pleasure. And for those who are thinking about making an application to the expression of interest, please just note the deadline. We'll look forward to hearing from you. And if you want to continue the conversation about corporate partnerships, come and subscribe to the newsletter or get in contact with us. We love to chat about partnerships and we really do think that there's a partner for everyone, no matter how small or how large.

Absolutely. And I'll put a link straight through to your website, Stellar Partnerships on the Grants Uncovered show notes. So we'll get that through and there'll also be a link through to the target opportunity as well, just to save people a little bit of time. So thanks again today, Linda and Sharon, and be great to have a chat another time again about corporate partnerships and taking this probably another whole level deeper.

Thanks for a great chat.

Jessie, thanks for joining me on Grants Uncovered. If you'd like show notes, head over to grantsuncovered.com see you next time.