Save the Children

Corporate Partnership Strategy

Introduction

Save the Children is one of the largest children’s rights organization worldwide. It was established in 1919 with the aim to improve children’s lives around the world. Today, it has a local presence in more than 120 countries and its programmes aim to protect the most vulnerable children worldwide. 

Scope

Traditionally, NGOs execute programmes which are funded by corporate and public sector donors. Increasingly, NGOs are moving towards developing a deeper partnership approach with selected corporates, utilising assets such as the corporate’s expertise, reach, supply chain, brand or employees. This more flexible approach of partnering can magnify the positive impact an NGO could have on its own.

NGOs and corporates do not always work in the same manner, so building successful partnerships can be challenging.  In 2019, we supported Save the Children Netherlands in reviewing the implementation of its corporate partnership strategy. Our review covered the value proposition, business case, management of the partnership pipeline and the way in which teams within Save the Children cooperate.

Impact

The Save the Children team already had a clear vision for their corporate partnerships in place and wanted to strengthen its implementation of this vision in the Netherlands. Our work helped to standardize and streamline the way in which partnership opportunities are evaluated and pursued. We built internal consent around the strategic case for investing time in partnerships and identified opportunities for improving communication between teams. Furthermore, we developed a set of KPIs to measure the progress which the organization was making with the implementation of its strategy. We continue to be in dialogue with the Save the Children team on innovative ways of engaging potential corporate partners.