Ten things I've learnt about effective partnerships between business and charity

Civil society organisations have at their core distinct social missions to tackle problems that are often outside the scope of conventional market appetite and may be ill-addressed by existing government institutions. However increasingly the lines between CSR, state intervention and social action are becoming blurred and new partnerships that cross sectors are emerging, galvanised by shared objectives and mutual benefit.

Many businesses are already engaged in programmes that have significant social value, either through their core business or through ancillary CSR endeavours. As a charity, identifying and partnering with these organisations can have profound benefits due to the reach and resource of big business. In return, the insights and access that working on the front line of social change can bring often hold wider commercial value to organisations working in complementary areas.

Here are a few thoughts that may be useful to those wondering how to create valuable relationships with business:

1. Have a clear idea of your organisational needs and priorities. It helps to know if you need funding support how much, when and for what, but remember that in these times corporate donations are hard to come by and companies are looking to partner with not just support charity. By understanding your core costs you may be able to find areas where you can benefit from in-kind support (for example space, time or training) which may have equal value and be a more realistic request.

2. Think about areas where a business could enhance the goods or services that you deliver. This may be expertise from their core business, technology, scale or geographic location.

3. Make sure you think not just about your organisational needs but also your end user needs. Holding end user/customer focus groups can surface up areas of potential for improvements that you may not have picked up on or may be less equipped to address than someone else.

4. Map the needs of your organisation to sectors and start to think where in that sector support could come from. Is there a tech firm that might help with systems implementation or could a bank help with impact measurement? Find out what priorities these companies have in the CSR space and whether they may be similar to your own organisation. Websites like Business in the Community or CSR networks like this can be useful.

5. Talking to the right people in companies helps ensure discussions are productive. If people in your networks work at or know people at the organisation you are interested in approaching they may be able to suggest the most appropriate person to contact.

6. When approaching companies be clear about why you are contacting them, what your organisation does and where you see potential to collaborate.

7. It's helpful to go to meetings with an idea of how you see a partnership working but be prepared to release your agenda. Take time to hear what they are already doing and about their organisational priorities, culture and business environment. Work together to identify areas of mutual interest.

8. Be clear about the value proposition of what you are suggesting. Where possible quantify it with facts and figures (for example the City of London released a great report on the business case for employee volunteering in education). Thinking from their perspective about the cost-benefit of their support is a useful exercise that may lead you to other areas where you can add value.

9. Understand how perspective may vary depending on the level in the organisation that you engage. Painting a creative and inspiring 3-5 year plan of collaborative innovation could excite a CEO but come across as completely unrealistic to someone less senior.

10. Remember that relationships take time to cultivate and what may be a conversation this year could be a pilot the next and grow into something deeper. Using a robust CRM system (such as Salesforce) is extremely helpful when maintaining a large number of relationships. Don't just cultivate the successful relationships, take time to explore and follow up on proposals that didn't get off the ground, there may be useful insight that helps you make more effective proposals in the future. Finally, be meticulous in your communication, ensure you follow up in a reasonable time, help where you can with information and be prepared to know the difference between gently pushing and hassling someone!

Dominic is currently Partnerships Manager at Teaching Leaders, a charity that addresses educational disadvantage by training and developing high potential middle leaders in challenging schools.