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Common Interest, Common Good: Creating Value Through Business and Social Sector Partnerships

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Every company I know is interested in getting and providing a great deal. Every nonprofit I know is committed to the greater welfare of the society. But almost no companies and nonprofits know how to link together to multiply their effectiveness in achieving their purposes.

This book provides outstanding examples and a superb template for creating partnerships of great value for all involved: companies, their employees, nonprofits, and the communities that everyone serves. Based on the examples in this book, it looks like the benefits can easily be 20 to 1 in the near term from the time and money invested. That kind of return is hard to find in business, philanthropy, or social entrepreneurship. The reason it happens is that the company can add value that the nonprofit cannot, and vice versa. The strategic partnership is not unlike the strategic alliances that companies create all the time with comapnies that offer unique strategic capabilities.

The reason these benefit are so large (and growing) is because customers and employees are ever more responsive to promoting a social cause, companies are getting better at partnering with outside organizations, and the expertise of nonprofits is growing.

Businesses can gain by getting low-cost recognition from customers that will increase sales, obtaining low-cost resources, making work more meaningful to employees (helping to retain them), attracting employees more easily, and learning how cause-based leadership can transform an organization. When you look at it from a dollar and cents point of view, these partnerships would pass any accounting test you want to use. Not to seek out these partnerships is to waste potential for growth and profits in your company. Corporate boards should be asking company CEOs to develop these partnerships!

Nonprofits can gain by learning how to increase outcomes they care about, gaining access to resources that would otherwise be unavailable, getting more exposure, and finding improved ways of meeting their missions.

Communities will gain by getting more resources, expertise, and attention from social entrepreneurs in companies and nonprofits.

So this is a win-win-win world, but somebody has to get it going. Chapter ten is excellent on that subject: It proposes a 5 step model for the nonprofit -- self assess, identify a partner, connect to that partner, test the relationship idea, and grow the relationship.

Although the initiative can come from the company, it usually won't. The executives already have other agendas, are receiving hundreds of requests for assistance, and don't know what many nonprofits can do for them. You can add some corporate executives to your nonprofit board who will understand companies to help you make these connections. The biggest hurdle will be the lack of corporate experience of your nonprofit's staff. Nonprofits are used to looking for a check, not a partnership. But that reliance on gifts alone is stalled thinking that will hold back the development of the public good.

The case histories include Home Depot and KaBOOM! (building playgrounds), Microsoft and the American Library Association (adding computers and Internet services to libraries in low-income areas), Denny's and Save the Children (raising money for poor children), BankBoston and City Year (sponsoring volunteers in community work), Ridgeview, Inc. and Newton-Conover Public Schools (creating better public schools and better parent involvement from employees with children), and Boeing and Pioneer Human Services (creating airplane parts by employing those with disadvantaged backgrounds). I found all of them to be interesting and well analyzed. Each one gave me ideas for how to pursue opportunties like these for the nonprofit on whose board I serve.

I especially recommend this book to company leaders, human resource executives, purchasing managers, and marketing planners. On the nonprofit side, this book will be a revelation to staffs and board members.

After you have read this book, please join the board of a nonprofit (if you are not already on one). Then, please use the processes in this book to create a strategic partnership with your company or another one in your community. You will gain strategic partnering skills and a sense of a job well done. The others will gain the benefits described above. If we each did this, our communities would soon be far more wonderful places to live and work.

I'd strongly recommend this book both to corporate executives looking to improve corporate image and morale and to non-profit leaders seeking new funding mechanisms. Although the hokey title evokes past clichés like "doing good by doing well," the book is actually a practical, hard-headed approach to making companies run better by working with non-profits -- either through straight philanthropy, employee volunteer efforts, or joint ventures.

Common Interest, Common Good represents powerful thinking that has already withstood many challenges and overcome many barriers. Corporate executives will benefit greatly from the book's clear and cogent lessons on the benefits of corporate/social sector partnership. This book is proof that goodness can endure.

As a former corporate executive and a former member of the boards of directors of several non-profits, I can only wish this book could have been available years ago. Just think what I could have accomplished! I certainly recommend it for people in similar positions now.

In contrast to so many business oriented books, this one is engagingly written and eminently readable

This is a great book for businesses looking for unique opportunities to both make a difference and raise their community standing. It is comprised of real, powerful examples of how these partnerships can and do work. This book should be read along with Bill Shore's, "The Cathedral Within."

This book shows that through forging alliances, for-profit and social sector organizations (private and governmental) can address major problems facing both such as declining funding for nonprofits and shaky global markets for business. Such alliances can improve the bottom for business by enhancing image, reaching new markets, increasing consumer loyalty, and building a positive reputation with employees and prospective employees. Nonprofits stand to gain in raising funds, increasing visibility, and attracting new volunteers and donors. The authors cover philanthropic, marketing and operational exchanges and offer guidelines in setting up such partnerships. This book explores an important symbiotic opportunity for organizations. It opens some potentially fruitful strategic pathways. Recommended.

This book is vital for doing business in today's marketplace. It is a valuable tool for anyone charged with writing proposals or developing publicity plans.

Topics range from corporate volunteering and identity building, to how to build value into partnerships between nonprofit institutions and for-profit corporations. With a bit of creativity, it's easy to substitute the words "independent contractor" or "self-employed" for the word companies. If you're the manager of a small nonprofit association, there can be big marketing benefits from partnering with a marketing savvy entrepreneur who runs a company of one - and vice versa.

If you don't have time to read the entire book, Chapter Ten is especially useful. One section provides a list of nonprofit needs that can be addressed through corporate partnerships. While another section lists business needs that can be addressed through social sector partnerships. There is also list of major obstacles that may arise in cross-sector partnerships, such as differing language, culture clashes, bottom-line goals, and even views of the world.

The authors are careful to point out that there are challenges as well as rewards to creating effective partnership programs. Bottom line is to create a win-win situation based on common interests.
Even in the best economic environment, there are plenty of good reasons for businesses large and small to partner with charities and other nonprofit organizations, all for the greater good.

The book jacket illustration, a handshake shaped like a heart, really says it all! (The reviewer is author of Personal Publicity Planner: A Guide to Marketing YOU and Top Cops: Profiles of Women in Command.)