Corporate & Non-Profit partnerships for green business innovations

Misc Notes:
· Vocabulary - “Social sector” / “change sector” – vs “non-profit”
· Rubicon social incubator – all new businesses w/ triple bottom line
· Sustainovation – sustainability can be a driver of innovation
· Question – what is a partenership? Legal ramifications…this question was raised.
· one of attendees in session wrote book called “wired for good”
· Non-profits can potentially use the PR teams & resources of large corporations to spread the word about their work. What are additional ways these orgs can gain (aside from $$ donations) from these partnerships?

Zach Franklin – Grid Alternatives
spoke about some initial challenging experiences with corporate partnerships – them using photos from events and not necessarily co-branding w/ Grid Alts.

Nick Flores - Green for All
· Managing partner requests – watching for green washing
· They do not “partner”, so much as highlight good programs
· Capitalists inside of a non-profit structure

What they try to ask themselves at the outset of a new partnership:
· What is our Development angle?
· how will it affect our brand?
· What capacity will it build within our org?

Green entrepreneur curriculum @ green for all

EDF experience w/ corporate partnerships (over 20 yrs)
· Define marketing strategy up front
· They don’t take $$ direct from corporations
· Careful - wont announce partnership until real results returned
· EDF asks- What do we want to get out of the corporate partnership?
· Have MOUs w/ each company
· EDF doesn’t take $ from them – transparency
· Ex: McDonald’s – 40 things to change that were developed and then shared w/ whole industry to change practices

Ellen Weinrab –
Story about Alliance to Save Energy – partnering w/ a brand


Tips for these partnerships:
· Make sure it is an equal engagement – managing expectations throughout, both parties are gaining (more than monetary)
· Good agreements up front with mileposts along the way
· Banks – need for CRA credits, to meet regulations, so they have incentive to partner w/ some groups

Misc. & Resources mentioned during session
· Stanford Social Innovation Review http://www.ssireview.org/
· building trust – Edleman(author) “trust barometer”
· goodguide.com (online database compare to set of stds: environ, animal testing & health)
· sierra club & green works cleaning products story
· 7 sins of greenwashing – search for this article online
· SRI.com – hybrid
· Young women social entrepreneurs
· Entrepreneurs Foundation – (community involvement & sustainability)
Article: For-Profits and Nonprofits Achieve Missions Together; Here are the keys to successful collaborations between nonprofits and corporations. By Sally Migliore / Sally Migliore is a senior associate at the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits, www.ncnonprofits.org. Study result: 70%of public citizens are more likely to donate to a nonprofit involved in a collaboration with business.