The Power of Corporate Partnerships

Foodbank Queensland run public food-raising events, primarily a Xmas Food Drive.  

Whilst the food drives resulted in a good volume of donations, there were a number of factors we needed to consider to evaluate the worthwhile going forward:

• Alignment with Foodbank mission to fight hunger efficiently
• Relationships and impact shown to donors
• Room for growth
• Return on staff time investment

Our review found that the program did not meet the organisation’s mission to provide the most food, to the most Queenslanders in need, in the most efficient and effective ways. Food collected in 2019 calendar year represented 0.4% of Foodbank Queensland’s annual food supply.

The Foodbank Queensland Board of Directors approved a virtual Hunger Drive replacing the Public Food Drive program for 2020 on a trial basis.

We identified one of the key success factors to the campaign would be securing a Corporate campaign partner, and have now brought both back for a second go in 2021.

The Hunger Drive would enable corporate teams, schools and the wider community to support Queenslanders in need to receive nutritious food by “donating food” virtually.

As it was replacing the traditional Food-Drive we wanted participants to be able to track their impact with automated meal calculations and fun leaderboards.

Importantly, the Hunger Drive would enable Foodbank Queensland to deliver on its vital mission to provide the most food to the most Queenslanders in the most effective and efficient ways.

We identified one of the key success factors to the campaign would be securing a Corporate campaign partner. 

As mentioned we identified one of the key success factors to the campaign would be securing a Corporate campaign partner, and Sunny Queen was our preferred choice.
As this was a 1-3 month campaign in comparison to a year round, we also offered a number of additional engagement opportunities for the Sunny Queen team throughout the year.

• Exclusive Sponsor and champion of the Hunger Drive
  
  
• Highlight partnership and showcase Sunny Queens commitment to community engagement
  
  
• Series of Social posts
  
  
• Media releases
  
  
• Newsletters
  
  
• Inclusion in Annual Review

Funraisin immediately understood our brief and brought our vision to life.

We wanted to clearly show 3 key things:

1.     The amount raised
2.     The number of meals
3.     How much Sunny Queen had matched.

The programme allowed us to:

•       easily adjust the matched giving time periods. 
•       flexibility to change the amount matched – we could therefore decide to triple or quadruple the matched donations depending on how close we were to reaching our max matched amount by the end of the campaign.
•       Adjust text on top banner

It was my first time using Funraisin, and for a non-tech savvy person like myself I was easily able to navigate the portal and make adjustments to as required.

• The campaign raised a total of $255,309 with Sunny Queen matching  $100,000 of donations, as a state based charity with limited donor base this was a very successful outcome.
   
• Provided Sunny Queen’s with content and imagery to release throughout the campaign, positioning their brand favourably.
  
  
• Delivered positive brand positioning of Sunny Queen to our participants and the wider community.
  
  
• Saved Foodbank Queensland thousands of dollars of small food donation collection, sorting and resupply into the community.  Volume of waste was also significantly reduced.
  
  
• Build our database of donors and community fundraisers. 

When brands come together to deliver powerful offerings, people stop and notice. When brands do so for the benefit of events, appeals and campaigns - people take action. Furthermore, when you combine this with the power of incredible digital experiences and the ability to customise your supporter journey, donor conversions and fundraiser activations are way more likely to occur. 

This means there is huge potential in adding a Double Donations Day to your participation event or for hosting a Matched Giving appeal. It harnesses the scarcity and urgency that will fuel the latent motivation that many donors have. We must never forget that donors and supporters already have the intent to support you, they just need the prompt.

The limited-time & matching resource is able to create an urgency and scarcity boost in motivation to donors that helps them along the activation journey. This is why we typically see Giving Days enjoy an activation rate of 200% vs standard fundraising appeals. If your fundraising project is a participation event, this will also add another key pillar to your supporter journey too. A Key strength is that the bulk donation (lets say $20,000) will encourage the same quantity of donations again. Better still, each donation represents a donor that will have been cultivated both by the nonprofit and the partner brand.  

Most importantly though, by matching the donor's gift, you are giving back to the donor immediately!

Successful partnerships are authentic and driven by a joint mission & alignment, and commitment to those elements.

The right partnership will open up new opportunities and impact for all. It takes joint a commitment and should contain an objective to achieve something. 

As brands embrace mission-led values, or are more openly mission-driven anticipation for innovative service design and experience delivery is ripe. Whether it’s matched giving donations, employee engagement drivers, or brand profile initiatives - brands are ready to partner and collaborate.