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Confluence: Seth, we greatly appreciate you taking the time to answer questions around the corporation-nonprofit relationship. We think it is important that your perspective from the nonprofit side regarding corporate partnerships is heard so that more businesses can learn why it is important for them to be involved, how they can be involved, and what they need to do. Let us start this off with an easy question. Can you please describe the importance of corporate partnerships to SOS Outreach? How vital for you are they?
Ehrlich: One highlight before you get too far into it as a demonstration of how strong our partnerships are with corporate donors and what we accomplish with them is through Vail Resorts Inc. (VRI). I just totaled our participation for 2014/2015, and we served over 3,000 youth across Vail mountains providing over 86,000 hours of outdoor activity to those kids. It is incredible what we’ve been able to leverage. Confluence: Wow!!! That is impressive and appears that VRI's donation is quite vital to your operations. It seems like to produce results like these takes significant time and effort to establish. How long has your relationship with VRI existed and what has made the relationship progress to where it is at today? |
About Seth Ehrlich, |
Often in this space we offer ideas and information reinforced by research, surveys, and initiatives. However, we thought a voice coming from a different perspective of the corporate social responsibility field was important. An integral role in the community engagement piece of corporate social responsibility is the nonprofit. For for-profits, managing the relationships with the charities your business supports is very important to ensure any collaboration succeeds.
Thus, we reached out to our good friend and Interim Executive Director at SOS Outreach, Seth Ehrlich. Ehrlich has been employed at SOS Outreach for nine years and is in charge of the organization's corporate donor relationship management. You can read more about Ehrlich's professional background below in the right hand column and more about SOS Outreach at the very end of the article.
You can read our interview with Ehrlich below. Several factors he mentions are the steps for businesses to get involved in working with a charity as well as what it takes to create a long-lasting, impacting relationship. Ehrlich also talks about why returns for both the charity and the business are necessary and how SOS is able to achieve that symbiotic relationship with its partners.
Thus, we reached out to our good friend and Interim Executive Director at SOS Outreach, Seth Ehrlich. Ehrlich has been employed at SOS Outreach for nine years and is in charge of the organization's corporate donor relationship management. You can read more about Ehrlich's professional background below in the right hand column and more about SOS Outreach at the very end of the article.
You can read our interview with Ehrlich below. Several factors he mentions are the steps for businesses to get involved in working with a charity as well as what it takes to create a long-lasting, impacting relationship. Ehrlich also talks about why returns for both the charity and the business are necessary and how SOS is able to achieve that symbiotic relationship with its partners.
Ehrlich: From a big picture, SOS’s programs are made possible through the dedication of corporations and their partnerships with SOS. We successfully leverage in-kind donations from mountain resorts and winter or summer manufacturers to provide programming for over 5,000 participants nationally. Our current budget is just over $1 million cash with an additional $2.25 million of in-kind goods or services through corporate partners. Vail Resorts as an example was involved in the founding of SOS 21 years ago. Starting with hosting on mountain competitions as fundraising events for other nonprofits, the partnership has expanded into a dynamic relationship that is meeting the needs of youth served by SOS and the goals of VRI’s community engagement. The relationship started with a strategic alignment and has grown in its complexity. By coming back to the fit between community focus and impacts of SOS programs, VRI has continued to be interested in supporting the growth of SOS’s programs in complexity or region. To build the relationship, SOS has built a conversation between organizations that is open and transparent. The results are exciting.
Confluence: What you said sounds like any other business or personal relationship, that being honest and clear with one another is important for the partnership to succeed year-after-year. For your corporate partners that are smaller organizations or who you have not had as long of a relationship with, what do you do to get them involved and then continue to support to make long-term impacts?
Confluence: What you said sounds like any other business or personal relationship, that being honest and clear with one another is important for the partnership to succeed year-after-year. For your corporate partners that are smaller organizations or who you have not had as long of a relationship with, what do you do to get them involved and then continue to support to make long-term impacts?
Ehrlich: To build a relationship with a new partner or a smaller organization, we have seen strong success in integrating similar transparency and dialogue. We do not have specific sponsorship tiers in place that would limit an organization’s ability to get involved. Instead we start with a conversation about their interest in supporting the community and SOS specifically. From there, we’re able to create a relationship that is mutually beneficial and sets the stage for long-term engagement. That sponsorship can be targeted to support one of SOS’s locations to increase impact and exposure, or can be broad for all locations. The result is that SOS has successfully created a strong community around its programs that incorporates corporate donors. This can be anywhere from a company donating a small quantity of outerwear to a sponsor providing equipment for all participants nationally. Another creative way that corporate donors have gotten involved are coming to program days to speak to SOS youth and bringing SOS kids to their offices to see how a product is made. We even had around 40 SOS kids at the SIA tradeshow and many of our partners brought them around for tours of the booths, showing them that it is possible to work in the industry of the sport they love.
Confluence: We like the fact that you say that you include businesses into the national SOS community and that you are trying to connect the business directly to the youth. Recently we have had more discussions around the question that if one gives to charity and is expecting a return, is it still charity. What is your take on this since you are also trying to provide returns to your corporate partners for a mutually beneficial relationship?
Ehrlich: Returns matter for corporations just as much as they matter for an individual in determining where to donate their funds and where to partner. Returns are core components of a relationship and are not necessarily in the most literal sense of receiving a payment. Whenever a corporation gets involved in the community, they are making an investment in the community, and they should expect a return on that investment. If they approach the relationship with that perspective, it is more likely that they will target their giving to where it resonates the most with their employees, company values, and organization goals. On the corporate side, those returns can include the ability to volunteer with a program in an effort to increase employee morale to expectations of marketing integration that increase positive touch points. I have seen relationships be the most successful when both the nonprofit and the corporate partner are transparent about their expectations and are working together meet those goals. Through transparency, you can evaluate the value and determine if there is a fit. When there isn’t a fit, you are able to make a decision from a position of knowledge and move on to the next partnership. It is unique when you analyze relationships from a different perspective and value them.
Confluence Two final questions for you: Where do you see the corporate-charity relationship heading for the next few years? What hopes do you have for the future of SOS' corporate partnerships?
Ehrlich: In the next few years, I see the continued growth of corporate-charity relationships that will push beyond one-time donations and event sponsorships. More and more organizations are defining community impact as a part of their success, and they are seeing employee and customer engagement as being tied to their financial returns.
For future SOS partnerships, I anticipate seeing more and more relationships that involve multiple facets of their business models and will create a bridge between the organizations. I have already seen our corporate partners more interested in highlighting their partnership with SOS publicly and having a desire to get more involved with programs. I look forward to seeing how we can further develop from here.
Confluence: We like the fact that you say that you include businesses into the national SOS community and that you are trying to connect the business directly to the youth. Recently we have had more discussions around the question that if one gives to charity and is expecting a return, is it still charity. What is your take on this since you are also trying to provide returns to your corporate partners for a mutually beneficial relationship?
Ehrlich: Returns matter for corporations just as much as they matter for an individual in determining where to donate their funds and where to partner. Returns are core components of a relationship and are not necessarily in the most literal sense of receiving a payment. Whenever a corporation gets involved in the community, they are making an investment in the community, and they should expect a return on that investment. If they approach the relationship with that perspective, it is more likely that they will target their giving to where it resonates the most with their employees, company values, and organization goals. On the corporate side, those returns can include the ability to volunteer with a program in an effort to increase employee morale to expectations of marketing integration that increase positive touch points. I have seen relationships be the most successful when both the nonprofit and the corporate partner are transparent about their expectations and are working together meet those goals. Through transparency, you can evaluate the value and determine if there is a fit. When there isn’t a fit, you are able to make a decision from a position of knowledge and move on to the next partnership. It is unique when you analyze relationships from a different perspective and value them.
Confluence Two final questions for you: Where do you see the corporate-charity relationship heading for the next few years? What hopes do you have for the future of SOS' corporate partnerships?
Ehrlich: In the next few years, I see the continued growth of corporate-charity relationships that will push beyond one-time donations and event sponsorships. More and more organizations are defining community impact as a part of their success, and they are seeing employee and customer engagement as being tied to their financial returns.
For future SOS partnerships, I anticipate seeing more and more relationships that involve multiple facets of their business models and will create a bridge between the organizations. I have already seen our corporate partners more interested in highlighting their partnership with SOS publicly and having a desire to get more involved with programs. I look forward to seeing how we can further develop from here.
About SOS Outreach
SOS Outreach offers best-practice and evidence-based progressive programs for underserved youth. Each program provides a value-based leadership curriculum that promotes self-respect, positive relationships, social skills, and core values combined with participation in outdoor adventure sports. Having served 40,000 youth since 1993, SOS has completed its twentieth year of making a positive difference in the lives of at-risk youth. SOS combines experiential learning with an intensive leadership development program. Over the years, SOS has grown in numbers, expanded across winter and summer adventure sports, and incorporated youth development leadership training and adult mentorship into its curriculum. In 2009, SOS finalized a merger with Meet the Wilderness, a 34-year-old organization that taught life skills, teamwork, and leadership to youth through summer programs. The merger ensured that SOS could provide its programs year-round which increased the quantity of positive touch points with youth. SOS continues to increase available program days for each participant. Since 2009, SOS has seen total national participants remain consistent at nearly 5,000. However, the organization has increased total program days from 17,175 to over 22,000, adding service learning projects, leadership workshops and activity days.
Ehrlich and Confluence Founder & Strategist, Brian Phipps, previously worked together for five years at SOS Outreach.
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