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A quick guide to business engagement

The opportunity: businesses’ quests to be more socially responsible There is a shift in the way business is being done in the UK – this includes the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) as much as the private sector. It provides an opportunity for the two sectors to work more closely together and develop shared goals as we all ask ourselves big questions about what the future may hold economically, environmentally and socially. Businesses are not the single answer to constraints currently faced by the VCS, but partnering with business certainly offers a multitude of benefits that can enhance a VCS organisation’s future. As you have probably noticed, businesses are no longer looking to simply hand over charitable donations as a means of demonstrating their commitment to social causes. Their interests and requests for involvement now run much deeper than making financial contributions. This should not be viewed negatively but as an opportunity to gain from contributions of businesses in ways that funding alone might not achieve, examples of which follow further on in this guide. The pressure is on for companies to embed social and environmental responsibilities into their business models, with Social Value becoming a greater requirement of what business delivers. But how can they be expected to fully understand social issues, challenges and trends in cases where this is not their area of expertise? This is where you come in! This guide provides tips for you to follow in your efforts to become a partner to private sector organisations. It aims to go some way in helping you transition from a mind-set of ‘beneficiary’ to ‘collaborative partner’. Approaching a partnership with a business involves many of the same principles you would apply if you were undertaking a marketing campaign or fundraising for your organisation. Essentially, this is about sales, and it’s quite alright to regard it that way. Getting into the business mind-set Businesses are increasingly recognising that there is much more to gain from being socially engaged than just improving their reputation, with social responsibility very gradually making its way from ‘add on’ to ‘core business’. The benefits span far and wide with the potential for social responsibility to touch several key aspects of a business, including but not limited to:

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HR (employee engagement, development and wellbeing)

Procurement (supply chain diversity e.g. procuring from socially-led organisations)

Marketing and communications (customer engagement)

Social responsibility does not just apply to a business’s external community activities and interests, but its internal operations and community. Businesses are made up of people, just as VCS organisations are. It’s easy to view businesses as faceless brands but looked at from a different angle, businesses can be viewed as communities in themselves.

The key drivers are:

Building reputation and credibility

Gaining competitive advantage

Engaging employees

Meeting policy and legislation requirements (e.g. Section 106, Social Value Act 2012)

Sense of societal responsibility

Customer/client responsibility

Tip! Many companies will not have people whose sole purpose is to develop and manage social responsibility agendas, so while you should start by checking to see if a business has someone or a team with Corporate Responsibility, Sustainability Corporate Citizenship or similar in its title, don’t be surprised if you don’t find one and certainly don’t be put off by this. Instead, look for individuals with responsibility for HR or marketing and in the case of a very small firm, it is worth going direct to the CEO.

Tip! As much as you should ensure business partnerships address the true need of your organisation and customers, it’s essential to try and meet your partners’ needs too. Understanding the key drivers and motivations for businesses becoming more socially responsible will enable you to create partnership offers that appeal to their interests.

Tip! The private sector is often regarded as one homogenous group with similar cultures, approaches and interests, but just as not all VSC organisations are the same, nor are all commercial businesses. Within the private sector is a vastly diverse group of primarily Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs- accounted for 99.9 per cent of all private sector businesses in the UK in 2013)1. When developing your approach, take into account the size and industry of a company; one size certainly doesn’t fit all.

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Preparing for engagement

Decide what type of activities and opportunities you can offer a business to help it achieve one or more of the following:

Better understand and connect with its customers

Better understand the communities in which it operates and social/environmental issues impacting on its products/services

Offer its employees engaging, developmental opportunities

Improve the sustainability and social value credentials of its supply chain

This should not mean veering away from your mission or deprioritising the needs of the people you support, but identifying ways in which your organisation can adapt existing projects and services to involve business participation.

Some questions to ask yourselves and discuss across the organisation:

Are there ways in which we can involve employee volunteers that will enable them to share and develop practical/professional skills?

What skills, expertise and activities can we offer the private sector?

Do our existing fundraising initiatives attract business support? And if not, could we design activities specifically aimed at businesses?

In return, what do you want to get out of these relationships? Your initial response might be ‘money!’ but it’s important to remember the following: while the assumption might be that businesses, particularly of a large size, make huge profits and therefore have lots of money to give away, this is not usually the case. Budgets available for social responsibility activities are often limited and stretched.

Tip! Your organisation is probably used to communicating its strengths and attributes to funders and others you want to influence. If you are yet to master this, it is an important starting point: get your message clear, simple and easy to articulate. Approaching business engagement is all about translating your selling points to appeal to a business agenda and asking yourself: what can we offer and why would a business want to partner with us?

Tip! There is nothing wrong with communicating to a prospective partner your organisation’s need for funding as part of a wider partnership discussion, but an approach only asking for funding is not likely to get you very far. Do be aware of the many other advantages to gain from business involvement:

Professional development of our staff

Improved service delivery and operations

Access to expertise, resources, networks, support and information

A commercial perspective

Enhanced credibility

Greater community outreach

Pro bono services

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Making the approach Approaching businesses with partnership offers might be unfamiliar territory for your organisation; think of it as looking for the right match to build a relationship with. There are in fact parallels between the process of internet dating and finding the right business partner, both of which take time, patience and a little flexibility! Research and scoping: what are you looking for in a partner? Develop a list of qualities you’re looking for as opposed to taking an approach of ‘any business will do’. Criteria to include could be: specific industries, evidence of commitment to social responsibility; based locally; synergy in values; good fit with current social responsibility agenda. Identify potential partners by carrying out online research and rating companies against your criteria list. This process should also involve your staff, Trustees and any other members of your organisational network who can contribute to the list of businesses to approach. A warm approach is more likely to yield results than a cold one. Creating and marketing your offer: what are your attractive features and why would a potential partner want to meet you? What opportunity are you offering them? Review your current marketing materials, particularly your website, ensuring they communicate to a business audience and gives them some indication of how they can get involved in your organisation. Consider developing a brochure aimed specifically at businesses, outlining the social/environmental problem your organisation specialises in addressing, how they can help by getting involved and how this would benefit them in return. Launch your offer: make your profile live. Announce via your communications channels, including social media, what you’re offering businesses. Start making direct approaches to the companies you’ve shortlisted on your criteria list and make each one bespoke; it’s a huge turn-off for businesses if it’s obvious your introductory email is simply a blanket template and contains no indication of background research. Find networking events where there is likely to be a business audience and get along to them. Introductory meeting and partnership negotiation: first date! You’ve got a meeting, brilliant. Develop a list of initial questions to ask them, based on your requirements and what you want to know about them. Do they match your criteria? Use this as an opportunity not only to present opportunities to engage with you, but to gauge whether they might be the type of business you want to partner with. Engagement activities: romancing and building a connection. Arrange for the business to visit to your premises/site and develop taster opportunities for them to get a feel for what you do and what it would be like be involved with you. This can

Tip! Be mindful of the potential risks involved in partnering with businesses too. Once you’re in a partnership, you are no longer operating autonomously and your partners will expect to be kept informed and updated on any developments that impact on the partnership. Be careful not to make commitments you don’t have the necessary resource to deliver- it’s much better to remain honest about your organisation’s capacity rather than agreeing to activities that become burdensome. For example, think carefully about how many joint activities you agree to before committing to them.

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help potential partners gain a better understanding of your organisation’s services and the impact they can make through partnering with you. If they like what they see, a partnership is more likely to be secured. Partnership agreement: entering into a relationship. Decide your minimum partnership requirements and aim to have any initial joint activities documented in a written partnership agreement. Not all businesses will be willing to sign an agreement, but having one in place can be useful for reviewing the partnership review throughout its lifecycle. You need to decide whether or not having a written partnership is a deal breaker. It may be that you still agree to involve them in your organisation but do not regard them as a formal partner. Background to the author and the LVSC business partnership training and support

Business Unusual is an agency for commercial businesses, intermediary bodies and socially-led organisations that want to create internal and external positive change through strategic business-community engagement.

Providing services in facilitation, strategy development, programme evaluation and training, the Business Unusual team helps: private companies to embed meaningful community engagement activities into their core business; the social sector to build links with commercial business and open doors to new partnerships; and intermediary bodies to offer effective business-community engagement support services to their stakeholders.

Business Unusual has been working with LVSC through ‘London for All’ (and since 2012) to provide business partnership training and support to VCS organisations in London.

This support and this briefing have been delivered through the ‘London for All’ project which is LVSC’s capacity building project funded by London Councils.

London Councils is committed to fighting for more resources for London and getting the best possible deal for London’s 33 councils. To read about London Councils’ grants funding and the work of some of the groups we support please visit www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/grants For any further information on the contents of this briefing please contact: Tim Brogden, Policy Project Manager, LVSC tim@lvsc.org.uk 020 7832 5813