Non-profit organizations often feel like supplicants when they ask businesses to work together to renew communities. They feel like unequal partners, where business has much to offer but the non-profit comes empty handed. Nothing could be further from the truth. NPO’s have much to offer businesses in collaborations set up to advance this work.

Five years ago when Assiniboine Credit Union determined to help Winnipeg’s north end community create alternatives for people using financial services such as pawn shops and payday loan companies, it knew it could not do that successfully without creating partnerships with community organizations. The NPO’s knew the dynamics of their community. They had insights into why residents used the more expensive and exploitative fringe financial services, and what it would take to make alternatives more attractive. Most importantly, they had the trust of the community, and could help ensure that ACU’s intentions were understood and accepted within the community. So they helped ACU design and implement an alternative.

The non-profit that ACU partnered with also brought important resources to the table. The alternative that was eventually created was one that required outreach to other community organizations and financially literacy training for the members who used the new service. This required staff time beyond the resources of the credit union. The NPO was able to raise those resources from sources that would be prohibited from providing funding to a corporation. And because of its deep connections within the community, the NPO was able to secure local space for the program on reasonable terms. 

There are many other examples of business/community collaborations where the community organizations had much to offer. When State Farm designed a product that made it possible to offer house insurance to homeowners in red circled urban neighbourhoods within large American cities, they found community organizations very helpful in promoting the product and getting demand to the point where it justified the development of the product. Many businesses have been able to improve their images as “good citizens” by partnering with high profile community organizations.

Any time we contemplate collaborating with others, we need to think about what we hope other partners will contribute to it, and what we have to offer them. Non-profit organizations will find they have much to add to the mix.