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AUGUST 22, 2023

In the past decades, there’s been growing demand for companies to take responsibility for their negative impact on society and the environment. As a result, two concepts – and terms – were born: CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance). While these terms are often used interchangeably, it’s important to understand that they’re different.

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JULY 20, 2023

There are distinct and different ways of partnering with a company, and therefore, an array of different terms (jargon). If your organisation wants to partner with companies, it’s vital your Board understands the different terminology as they have funding & legal consequences. If YOU are the changemaker tasked with winning corporate partners, you must know the differences, so you can enter negotiations with authority and confidence.

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JUNE 18, 2023

Let’s demystify a term that frequently makes headlines but is often misunderstood: recession. It’s easy to get sucked into doom and gloom thinking, which can erode your confidence when approaching corporates and undermine your negotiation. A recession definition A recession is typically defined as a significant, widespread and prolonged decline in economic activity across a country or region.

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MARCH 21, 2023

Sally & Hailey at Harry Styles, February 2023 When Hailey met Georgia in 2019 she’d been running her modular training program for 22 years. The popular program, HeartSmart®, was delivered via Masterclasses and later as a physical toolkit. Georgia and Hailey’s vision for the program was to take it online, and thankfully Georgia had all the skills needed to make that a reality.

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DECEMBER 18, 2022

Back in 2019, Hailey was burned out from running a small business for 24 years. Her husband Tyrone – and rock of 19 years – was concerned. The vibrant, funny woman he’d met all those years ago was depressed, despite having built over 50 partnerships investing over $40 into charities, she felt like a failure. One day, his wife came back from the shops with a glint in her eye.

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NOVEMBER 3, 2022

Patience. Not very sexy is it? Not as appealing as success! But they go hand in hand. Bill Gates, of all people, knows this to be true. In my blog last week , I highlighted the internal factors that underpin a successful approach in corporate partnerships. Here, I tackle the EXTERNAL factors. External. Is there appetite within the corporate community to partner with your cause?

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OCTOBER 30, 2022

Let’s stop right there. There’s no such thing as an overnight success. If you embark on a corporate partnership strategy thinking that success will come quickly or, that getting money out of corporates is easy, you’re setting yourself up to fail, in a most spectacular fashion. So, what IS achievable in corporate partnerships? What DOES it take to achieve success?

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OCTOBER 26, 2022

Concluding our blog series about The Four Corporate purses (budgets) that changemakers can tap into. Check out the previous blogs exploring purses 1 , 2 & 3. Let’s dive into my favourite purse – MARKETING. Why is it my fave? Because I’m a former corporate marketer (and therefore it speaks my language); it’s the largest purse, holding the greatest potential for untied funding (hooray, untied funding!

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OCTOBER 11, 2022

This is the third of four purses that non-profits & social enterprises can tap into when approaching corporates for resources & cash. Check out the previous blogs exploring purses 1 & 2. As a reminder, the 4 purses are: 1) HR, 2) Philanthropy, 3) CSR, and 4) Marketing. Let’s dive into the most exciting and fastest-growing purse, that of Corporate Social Responsibility.

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OCTOBER 5, 2022

In the previous blog , I examined the first of the four purses (the HR purse) that non-profits & social enterprises can tap into when approaching corporates for resources & cash. As a reminder, the 4 purses are: 1) HR, 2) Philanthropy, 3) CSR, and 4) Marketing. Let’s dive into the Philanthropy purse today. The Philanthropy purse is the most well-known to changemakers, who live and breathe philanthropy.

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SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

In my previous blog , I revealed the four distinct purses that non-profits & social enterprises can tap into when approaching corporates for resources & cash (yes, I put cash second, more on that later). As a reminder, the 4 purses are: 1) HR (Human Resources), 2) Philanthropy, 3) CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), and 4) Marketing. Let’s start by diving into the HR purse.

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SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

In over two decades of matchmaking companies with causes, I’ve witnessed a consistent error that non-profits make which prevents them from even securing a meeting with a prospective corporate partner. Here’s the problem: they view a corporate (that includes a company or brand) as a ‘donor’ with just one purse (budget), when in fact, there’s four purses.

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JULY 19, 2022

To say the pandemic changed many things is an understatement. The way we work, socialise, the way we shop, and for many things, there’s no going back to ‘normal’ Given that going out to shop was a risk to our health (especially if buying toilet rolls!) have you changed the way you purchase products? Even a former staunch anti-online purchaser like Hailey has embraced the e-commerce world and found it to be, for the most part, an efficient and reliable way to shop.

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JULY 3, 2022

“I don’t want more untied money” said no-one working within a non-profit, ever. Untied money into a non-profit is gold, is it not? You can spend it on whatever is a priority, and often it’s the ‘not very sexy’ things like staff training & salaries, rent, IT improvements, infrastructure etc. So why then do so many non-profits go chasing after TIED MONEY!?

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MAY 18, 2022

In late 2021 Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) forged a brilliant partnership with the Bupa Foundation called ‘Healthy Planet, Healthy People’ Bupa is a healthcare company committed to helping people live longer, healthier & happier lives and making a better world. Conservation Volunteers empowers communities across Australia to take action for a thriving future for humans and nature.

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MAY 3, 2022

A standout partnership that emerged during the pandemic was Reckitt’s alliance with the quiet achiever - Meals on Wheels Australia. It was topical, beautifully executed and a perfect alignment of goals. Meals on Wheels delivers more than 14.8 million meals to elderly Australians a year. The onset of COVID-19 created an even more testing time for an already vulnerable elderly population, and while the country went into lockdown, demand for the Meals on Wheels services increased.

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APRIL 12, 2022

You’ve heard it before: “the quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you ask” The non-profit sector is amidst an exciting evolution (in part due to the pandemic) causing changemakers to ask questions – many of them challenging. When we ask the right – or better – questions, we increase the chances of getting a better answer, and outcome.

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APRIL 3, 2022

There’s just three little letters that make up a big and important word: WHY. I became intimately acquainted with the word WHY during the early 1990s. In the midst of a messy relationship break-up, I’d sing the Annie Lennox song ‘Why’ through tears day and night. If you don’t know the song check it out, it’s a stunner.

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MARCH 13, 2022

One of the things I’m most passionate about is helping changemakers prepare for success. For many entrepreneurial non-profits, the idea of preparation and planning is just plain boring, they want to get out there and get results RIGHT NOW. The reality is, it simply doesn’t happen that way. As Steve Jobs once said, "if you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time” Jerry Seinfeld, American comedian, was hailed an ‘overnight sensation’ Love him or

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MARCH 1, 2022

And just like that – Autumn is upon us. It’s my favourite season. Harvest festivals, a crisp orange carpet on my driveway, cooler temperatures, shorter days, cosy nights in front of the fire sipping a Pinot. As the leaves start to change colour and fall, nature is showing us the beauty of letting go, and the opportunity to embrace the new.

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FEBRUARY 20, 2022

Bully Zero is a small charity that punches way above its weight. They educate and advocate to prevent and reduce bullying across Australia, delivering their programs to schools and workplaces across Australia. Since it was founded in 2013 by Ali Halkic, Bully Zero has visited 1,214 schools, has run 3,642 education sessions, and educated over 403,000 young people, parents and employees on bullying prevention.

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DECEMBER 7, 2021

Former BePartnerReady.com® student the Heart Foundation signed up a new partnership with Coles in 2020. Together, their goal was to support Australians’ aspirations to become healthier and more active. Coles launched the Coles Health Hub , a one-stop online portal offering practical information & solutions around exercise, diet & nutrition, mental health and most importantly, motivation.

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NOVEMBER 15, 2021

Despite living in a COVID bubble for the past year, Australian consumers have come out swinging in favour of companies that support charities. New research (launched 29 October 2021) reveals that during lockdown, Australians have become more concerned about social and environmental issues, and they’re demanding that the corporate sector step up and show leadership in solving social issues. 62% of Australians say that during COVID, they’ve re-evaluated their priorities in life, and if

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OCTOBER 10, 2021

When meeting a corporate for the first time, it’s a little like First Dates. Or, for those of you that have been binge watching Bridgerton – a Debutante ball. Aaah Bridgerton. A period drama that’s oh so proper and oh so naughty. With a mightily fine Duke of Hastings that’s far from stuffy. What I love about this show – and why it makes me think of corporate partnerships – is that Daphne, the protagonist, is a modern lass who knows her worth.

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OCTOBER 6, 2021

I know that Aussies & Kiwis squabble over ‘ownership’ of Crowded House, but there’s no disputing that Neil Finn is a certified rock legend. The New Zealander is a multi-talented musician, prolific writer of timeless, memorable songs, and was awarded an OBE. He didn’t just BECOME a rock legend.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2021

Identifying corporate prospects is a little like prospecting for alluvial gold. You can’t just expect to walk up any old mountain river and low and behold, ‘there’s gold in them there hills!’ ’ You need knowledge and history of the terrain, as well as the geology.

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AUGUST 9, 2021

A business partnership is a little like a marriage – there is usually a common purpose, shared values, collaboration, and mutual benefit. And a whole lotta love. Partnerships (and indeed marriages) often fail when there’s no mutual trust or give & take.

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JULY 5, 2021

You’ve probably heard of the good ol’ SWOT analysis. A business imperative that’s one of the first things you’re often taught in any sort of business/marketing/communication course. For those unaccustomed, a SWOT is a technique used to help an organisation identify their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, often related to competitors or feasibility planning.

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MAY 30, 2021

As Yogi Berra once said “ if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else ” That’s why the BePartnerReady.com® process starts with setting an intention for corporate partnerships. There’re 3 good reasons to set an intention: 1. Focus. It gets you focused on a clear outcome so you can concentrate all your energy on that, and avoid distractions and so-called ‘opportunities’ that throw you off course.

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APRIL 25, 2021

When embarking on a corporate partnerships strategy, it’s critical to know that there are two levels of readiness. Often when non-profits and social enterprises consider commencing a corporate partnerships strategy, their first action is to ask the board for contacts within the business sector. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s something that should be done way down the track, and certainly not at the start.

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APRIL 12, 2021

I spent the Christmas holidays indulging in passion – making stuff (calling it ‘art’ is a bit of a stretch). I invaded my husband’s workshop (he’s a proper artist, unlike me) and thew myself into making a sculpture that’s been nudging my subconscious for years saying ‘make me, make me’ Creating helps me to relax & get away from the screen – but most of my projects never see the light of day.

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APRIL 5, 2021

London, 1980’s: My padded shoulders, permed hair and I, worked with leadership teams and marketing managers within multinational companies (Unilever, J&J, Cadbury’s to name a few). Upon arriving in Australia in 1994, I began working with amazing Australian companies through my company Cavill + Co, advising on their CSR & building partnerships for blue chips including Disney Australia, AMP, Mondelez, Vodafone, SEEK and many more.

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JANUARY 30, 2021

Late last year we released new research with Di Marzio Research that reveals - despite the turmoil in the economy created by COVID, rising unemployment and lockdowns - consumers are insisting that companies and brands do more to support causes. The research report entitled ‘The Conscious Consumer era arrives. Finally’ shows that almost half of Australians feel let down by corporates who are failing to meet their societal obligations, and 2 in 3 Australians believe that corporates sho

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MAY 31, 2020

My dear friend Susan Ryan, a brilliant artist and business coach, said this to me in the early days of Cavill + Co. It became a favourite saying, one that my students loved. But like all sayings, it took me experiencing it to truly get it. One day, I had several deadlines to meet and I’d made a promise to my man, Tyrone, that I’d finish on time (for once) and we’d cook dinner together.

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JULY 16, 2020

My favourite science communicator Carl Sagan once said “somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known” Market research, a little like marketing & branding, is vital to corporates and brands but its often considered a luxury by non-profit management. Non-profits, like companies, exist to solve a problem. How can you solve a problem if you don’t understand it?

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AUGUST 4, 2020

Although the road ahead is going to be challenging, we all know that it’s vital that changemakers adopt an abundance mindset if they intend to pursue corporate partnerships. I’ve always thought it very strange that the For-Purpose sector defines itself by what it’s NOT – it’s why I prefer to use terms like ‘For Purpose’ and ‘Changemakers’ because Not For Profit just sounds so, well, demeaning.

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AUGUST 11, 2020

The Board has legal obligations to ensure your organisation is fulfilling its purpose, remains solvent, meets obligations and will ultimately be responsible for dealing with any ramifications from a corporate partnership. Therefore, it’s imperative that you have Board sign off prior to ‘going to market’ In my experience many Board members, even those that have previously worked in the corporate sector, are not specialists in corporate partnerships and may not realise the comple

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