Sustainability-focused corporate partnerships with nonprofit organizations are nothing new -- and there are some great examples of how these kinds of partnerships can benefit both parties. (Check out Coca-Cola's relationship with WWF, for example.) Partnerships can take many forms, including:
- Providing a specific cause where employees can direct cash donations to the nonprofit.
- Providing a nonprofit organization with a recurring source of revenue to support the work that it does, via direct donation or proceeds from the sale of a co-branded product.
- Sharing data to better understand or inform a situation or issue.
- Creating a volunteer funnel where employees can easily donate time to the nonprofit.
- General awareness-raising through corporate promotion of the work that the nonprofit does.
Sounds good, right? But of course, as with all sustainability decisions, there are trade-offs. We loved this infographic from Walden University (click to view it larger) that explores both perceived strengths and weaknesses of a nonprofit organization as it relates to their role in social change. These statistics are the result of Walden University’s recently released 2012 Social Change Impact Report, which was commissioned to assess the impact of social change and to learn more about the individuals engaged in social change. (Last week we explored another great infographic from Walden University on social change. Click here in case you missed it!)
So before you partner up with a nonprofit to help promote sustainability, consider some of the following quick and easy data snapshots provided in this infographic.