Marks & Spencer and Oxfam have been voted the ‘Most Admired corporate-NGO Partnership 2011’ for the second year running in the Corporate-NGO Partnerships Barometer annual report.
The report, which is in its second year, surveys around 150 organisations involved in corporate partnerships, including, Virgin Atlantic, Vodafone, HSBC, ActionAid, RNIB and Shelter.
Survey participants voted M&S and Oxfam as their most admired charity partnership. Additionally, Oxfam secured the ‘Most Admired Partnering NGO 2011’, taking the accolade from last year’s winter, WWF. M&S also secured the ‘Most Admired Partnering Company 2011’ ahead of Barclays, P&G and Sainsbury’s.
Want to find out about what M&S looks for in charity partnerships? Read our exclusive interview with M&S head of sustainable business in September’s issue of Fundraising magazine about the company's priorities, partners and pitching pet hates.
Reputation
The survey also quizzed companies on their philosophy behind charity partnerships – reputation and credibility was the most important reason companies engaged in partnerships. Innovation was the second most important reason.
Both companies (88 per cent) and charities (93 per cent) expect the role of cross-sector partnerships to become much more important to their organisations over the next three years.
However, the survey revealed that companies and charities felt differently about the benefits of non-financial support and how these should be applied.
Some 71 per cent of businesses believe that harnessing their competencies and non-cash resources would make much more of an impact of the fulfilment of their charity partners’ objectives, than purely cash-based relationships.
While, only 38 per cent of charities agreed with this view.
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