Engaging a diverse workforce with charity partnerships

CAF’s recent event ‘Engaging a diverse workforce with charity partnerships’ was one of our most successful events yet with the highest number of attendees, suggesting that forming successful charity partnerships is an important item on the agenda for many CSR practioners.

We were delighted and privileged to have a great panel of award winning speakers, including those from Tesco, Deloitte and Travis Perkins. They each gave an inspirational overview of how they have grown successful charity partnership programmes. The key messages included:

• Involve staff from across the organisation in choosing a charity partner.
• Put the fun in fundraising.
• Ensure the needs of your business are aligned with the needs of your charity partner.

What do charities need?

After a short break and welcome caffeine injection, our inspirational speakers were joined by representatives from their charity partners for an energetic question and answer session. These included Breast Cancer Campaign, Together for Short Lives, Cancer Research UK, Children with Cancer and the Alzheimer’s Society.

The charities talked through what they need from a corporate partnership. Alzheimer’s Society stressed the importance of corporates providing clear and concise briefs when asking charities in to pitch for a partnership. Breast Cancer Campaign said that while fundraising will always be important, there are many more ways in which charities can benefit from their corporate partners, including helping to raise awareness about their cause among networks and communities. 

For me there were three key words to take away from the event:

• Impact: Be clear and focused about the impact you want to have and identify the best way to measure impact – it might not be financial!
• Understanding: Understand your charity partners, your employees and your role as a partner.
• Resource: Recognise what resources you have available, what resources can be shared between partners and be realistic about what you can achieve with the resources available to you.

Upcoming event: Business Charity Awards Workshop

In January we will be holding a Business Charity Awards Workshop which will be an opportunity to get handy tips and advice from a Business Charity Award judge about what makes an award winning application. To register your interest in this event please visit our website.

Charlotte Davis, Company Relations Manager, CAF