A rising number of for-profit businesses are looking to partner with nonprofits for advice, ranging from finding a purpose to effectively relaying strategies to stakeholders. But many of those businesses don’t know where to begin. Featuring insight from Giulia Siccardo, a partner at McKinsey & Co., a November article by the Harvard Business Review outlines three helpful tips:
Consider partnering with a nonprofit for a product launch
Statistics from Nonprofits Source, cited in the Harvard Business Review article, show that 90% of corporations say their reputation becomes more trustworthy after partnering with nonprofits. Therefore, corporations can benefit from the reputation and services of nonprofits when launching a new product.
Perhaps more important is that 89% of corporations believe their work with reputable nonprofits help to accelerate societal impact. While not a substitute for holistic change, partnerships that go beyond PR or branding can elevate corporate environmental, social and governance strategies.
Go to market with a nonprofit arm
If their roles do not overlap, for-profit and nonprofit firms can join forces to work “synergistically.” For example, Tomorrow.io – a weather and climate security platform – provides insight to industries such as irrigation and field management. Meanwhile, its nonprofit arm TomorrowNow.org uses the same advanced technology to serve underrepresented communities by providing advanced notice of extreme weather events as well as education and engagement.
The for-profit, nonprofit loop leads to “shared purpose, catalytic solutions, and accelerated impact,” Siccardo said.
Fill gaps in the market
Together, through a nonprofit-like vehicle, companies can spread information, set industry standards and even send market signals. For example, Frontier, a public benefit corporation scaling a carbon removal market, was built in 2022 by Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, Stripe and McKinsey.
