Cross-Sector Partnership and Impact Measurement

Speakers

• Aaron Hurst, President and Founder, Taproot Foundation
• Leslie Black Cordes, Senior Director of Partnership Development, United Nations Foundation
• Jeremy Prepscius, Managing Director, Asia, BSR (Moderator)

Highlights

• Partnerships can be complex, but it is important to remain true to their original vision and values, and stay focused on who the primary customer is.

• It is important for nonprofits to adapt their message to the reality of the partner that they are working with and to be able to articulate their value proposition and impact.

• It is challenging to measure the impact of activities that do not directly lead to results, yet it is crucial to develop metrics that will provide some evidence of success.

Memorable Quotes

“Large companies have something that NGOs in China do not have, such as talent that can scale an enterprise.” —Aaron Hurst, Taproot Foundation

“Our partner in India has a program that has shown that they can feed families twice a day instead of once a day because of savings on fuel … so we are trying to be more crisp about how we message this so people get the role of energy access. Measuring and telling the story is important.” —Leslie Black Cordes, United Nations Foundation

“Social entrepreneurs often try to get short-term changes with big headlines. But there is also a need for people to continue their everyday work. On the stock exchange, although it is an IPO that grabs the headlines, many other companies are still growing. As everyone looks for IPO outcomes, they need to also recognize the slow slog that is happening.” —Aaron Hurst, Taproot Foundation

Overview

Prepscius began by framing the topic around three areas: how to drive cross-sector partnerships and work with them; how to measure the impact partnerships have; and what this might look like in a developing economy context, such as China.

Hurst started by explaining that in many developing economies the gap between the haves and have-nots is not just between individuals, but between institutions, where large companies have the funding, skills, and talent that nonprofits lack; without this, they are unable to scale. He explained that companies need to provide nonprofits with more resources (such as talent) pro bono. He commented that Taproot, which helps nonprofits access this talent in the United States, is increasingly working globally; this year, for example, they formed a new partnership with BSR, HP, and a local nonprofit to promote pro bono work in China.

In the same way, Cordes introduced one of the main partnerships she works on that is related to energy access. Although the headline figure may be that 2 million people each year die from diseases associated with inhaling smoke, the additional impact from a lack of access to energy is in the opportunity cost, such as women having to take time collecting wood or spending money purchasing fuel that could be spent elsewhere. She explained that the UN Foundation is working closely in China, where 350,000 people die each year from breathing smoke from cookstoves. The foundation can play a role in developing, testing, and manufacturing cookstoves, which could be exported to other countries at low cost.

Hurst finds that a major challenge nonprofits face with partnerships is having multiple customers, which distracts them from focusing on their primary customer. He has found that partnerships must remain true to their visions, their values, and their primary customers, and he criticized some volunteer activities that create feelings of doing good without actually doing good. Cordes echoed these comments from her experiences trying to understand the needs of customers at the base of the pyramid.

Meanwhile, Cordes shared that her work has benefited greatly from their corporate partnerships, such as one with Dow Corning, which uses its expertise to create new combustion chambers that can retain heat better, something the UN Foundation would otherwise not be able to afford. Hurst emphasized that they are grateful to their partners on the ground in China who understand the situation and who have the patience to lead while his organization plays a supporting role.

Next, Cordes introduced the challenge she faces of working out what metrics to use to show progress toward their headline goal to create a marketplace—or infrastructure—for cookstoves, rather than simply provide cookstoves. She has found that corporate partners prefer to have simple numbers, and she is still learning how to help them understand this issue and provide partners with suitable metrics. She now better explains the benefit of energy access in terms of time or money saved (up to one-third of income is often spent on fuel), which can be better used for other things like buying food or companies’ products. Cordes found that both of these angles resonate much better with corporate partners, particularly as the latter more closely relates to the business, creating a more enticing value proposition.

Hurst agreed with Cordes about the importance of having stories that show impact as well as proof, such as statistics that the social impact of one hour of pro bono is worth 10 times more than one hour of traditional volunteering. Although he believes the field still lacks enough data to show which intervention has more impact, having some data that shows impact is crucial.

In the Q&A session, Liz Needleman, Regional Director, Business in the Community (BITC), explained that BITC is able to leverage 12 pounds of private sector expertise for every one pound of funding it receives for its pro bono program, which helps attract more funding. She asked if it is possible to obtain data on the impact of projects that do not buy anything specific through pilots, or through comparisons with other projects that have gone through similar experiences. Cordes explained that they have been able to get data from some projects, such as one in India where families are now able to feed themselves twice a day instead of once a day because of the savings on fuel from using better cookstoves. Hurst, however, raised the concern that we must not be too focused on short-term results and headlines, as we need to remember that the “slow slog” is important and that our measurements need to recognize day-to-day success.

Brian Collins, Supplier Development Manager, Hallmark Cards, Inc., asked how to get beyond the “so what” of programs to impact, to which Hurst replied that there is a need for more competition and transparency in the nonprofit sector. Hurst stated that if there was more transparency of data then there would be more consolidation in the marketplace and greater performance. Cordes added that in her experience it has been very helpful to remain focused. Despite the difficulties in turning down funding, the focus has made the UN Foundation stronger, giving staff the time to really understand an issue.

Finally, Hurst commented that although companies often ask nonprofits to act more like companies, he believes that companies need to actually act more like companies and be more rigorous about their approach to philanthropy, applying appropriate people and resources as required. Cordes finished by explaining that she has no problems with companies benefiting from their partnerships, such as Dow Corning, which may be able to generate sales from the technologies it has developed for the cookstoves. Prepscius wrapped up the session by focusing on the importance of companies acting like companies in their partnerships, being patient, building relationships, developing shared mindsets, and taking the time to invest in these issues in order to achieve success.