Academy Members Meeting - Creating good partnerships between Businesses and NGOs

As part of the research efforts leading toward the first Giving Report in Malta, the Academy organised a workshop on February 14^th 2024, where both businesses and NGOs representatives came together to understand gaps and needs of the Giving Sector.

From the discussion, moderated by Melanie Vella, Sustainability and ESG Solutionist at Tides Rising, it clearly emerged how NGOs and businesses have opposite perspectives, and new relationships need to be nurtured through communication to foster stronger, more effective partnerships.

Some recurring themes of discussion were based on a discrepancy between NGOs’ capacity and businesses’ expectations when collaborating: businesses are frequently interested in supporting projects but often overlook the limited capacity of NGOs to manage numerous initiatives at once.

Moreover, NGOs often feel companies treat NGOs as event organisers for CSR or team-building events, which in some instances leads to divergences from the core mission of these organisations. Building on this observation, some NGOs also expressed how businesses “window shop” for partnerships, leading to a competitive environment where NGOs must offer enticing "packages." While the competition among NGOs for funding and visibility leads to inefficiencies.

Trust and value alignment are critical: NGOs remarked heavily that they cannot align with businesses that contradict their values.

What emerged was extensive room for improvement in these partnerships, but to do so, the following points need to be taken into consideration:

1. Long-term Support: Companies like APS advocate for 2-3 year commitments to maximize impact and efficiency in partnerships.
2. ‍Knowledge Sharing: Businesses can provide expertise to NGOs, fostering mutual growth. ‍
3. Collaborative CSR: NGOs can partner with each other to provide CSR activities, attracting joint support from companies
4. ‍Training Opportunities: Businesses could receive training from NGOs to understand their missions and activities better.

Some suggestions also emerged at the end of the session.

To build strong relationships, two elements are necessary:

• Strengthen communication channels to overcome the lack of awareness between NGOs and businesses.
 
• Focus on alignment of missions and long-term mutual benefits rather than transactional partnerships.

Aside from that, our moderator Melanie Vella also pointed out the importance of avoiding redundancies by consolidating efforts among NGOs and learning from business examples, such as mergers.

Overall, the meeting emphasised the need for strategic, value-driven partnerships between NGOs and businesses to ensure sustainable and impactful collaborations. Both sectors need to invest in understanding each other's capacities and limitations for better outcomes.

Interested in knowing more about the GivingSector? Stay tuned for our upcoming Giving Report!

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