Report from CASE Conference: Strategic Philanthropy Insights
Posted: 6/8/2010 2:46:39 PM by
Emily Rogers | with 0 comments
I had the pleasure of co-leading a session last Thursday at the Council for Advancement & Support of Education’s Annual Conference for Corporate & Foundation Relations Officers in San Francisco.
My co-leader for the session titled: “Strategic Philanthropy: A New Paradigm for How Corporations Partner with Higher Education” was Eric Thompson, director of corporate & foundation relations for Purdue University Calumet.
We were joined by a great panel of corporate partner representatives: Cheryl Pierce, vice president of corporate services & events for Bank of the West; Freddy Santos, regional marketing manager for Allstate Insurance Co.; and Steve Woodhead, university affairs manager for Chevron.
My key takeaways from our fruitful discussion are focused on three themes: integration, communication and accountability.
Integration. Both the corporate representatives on the panel and the higher education representatives in the audience expressed the need to integrate across departments when partnering to ensure the relationship and the collective assets both parties bring to the table are fully harnessed and leveraged.
Communication. This important factor in growing and nurturing any relationship was emphasized, particularly when corporations and higher education organizations are de-centralized.
Accountability. In today's economic environment, accountability to the partnership is more important than ever; expectations of both parties should be shared, measured and evaluated to ensure success.
There is no doubt corporations have been shifting their support from what had been purely philanthropic donations to meeting their overarching branding goals through strategic philanthropy. Looking to the future and understanding how corporations are shifting their support to this new paradigm is going to be the key factor for nonprofits in establishing mutually beneficial partnerships with these corporations.
Emily Rogers is president of IEG Sponsorship Consulting. A seasoned sponsorship professional, she oversees IEG’s business development, advisory services, valuation and research departments.
Read more blog posts
Filed under: nonprofit, strategic philanthropy, trends, cause marketing