Need to engage multiple corporate partners for your charity?

3 Lessons from an inspiring campaign

Why seek strategic corporate partnerships for your charity?

Building strategic corporate partnerships can be a game-changer for charities, not only in terms of financial support but also, importantly, in helping them achieve their mission directly. For instance, many companies have resources in terms of expertise, products and reach which are many times greater than a charity can generate / pay for on its own. This is why we share lots of powerful techniques for identifying, approaching and building strategic partnerships in the Corporate Partnerships Mastery Programme.

And I’m always on the look out for new examples of what is possible, so I was delighted to get the chance to interview the brilliant Cara Hoofe and Sabrina Nixon, of Bowel Cancer UK, for the Fundraising Bright Spots podcast (episode 132), in which they shared the story of the inspiring corporate partnership campaign they created, the #GetOnaRoll campaign.

The Campaign – summary

The #GetOnaRoll campaign was a bold, innovative campaign by Bowel Cancer UK, designed to increase understanding of the symptoms of bowel cancer. The idea was simple but effective: encourage retailers and manufacturers to print the five most common symptoms of bowel cancer on their toilet paper packaging. The campaign aimed to make these critical symptoms more visible to the public, so they’d be more likely to go to their GP if they noticed any of the symptoms. Earlier diagnosis improves medical outcomes and saves lives.

A powerful effect…

I loved learning about this innovative partnerships initiative. Firstly, it was effective. Awareness of at least one bowel cancer symptom changed from 58% at the start of 2022 to 74% in May 2023 and this campaign’s huge reach into 1 in 3 homes in the UK has contributed to that.

What made it different?

There are several unusual things about this partnership, compared to the way partnerships usually work, which are great food for thought for other fundraisers:

1. They recruited multiple partners within one product category. Other charities could adopt this strategy when there is an industry particularly relevant to their cause / mission.
2. Impressively, they managed to partner with most of the key players in this category, including many huge brands (such as Andrex, M&S, Waitrose, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.)
3. They found and recruited most of the partners incredibly quickly compared to how long it usually takes to recruit corporate partners.
4. Although it did also generate financial income, the activation of the partnership – displaying 5 red flag symptoms of bowel cancer on toilet roll packs and on toilet doors – in and of itself, helped to achieve the charity’s mission.
5. A major reason the campaign was effective is that it captured people’s attention in the right context by being on a product people use when they may be experiencing symptoms. Two of the red flag symptoms happen while on the toilet: bleeding from your bottom and/or blood in your poo, and a persistent, unexplained change in your bowel habits.

Here are three lessons I took from my chat with Cara and Sabrina. If you are a corporate fundraiser interested in recruiting multiple corporate partners in one product category, I hope you find them helpful.  

Lesson 1: Keep it simple and make it easy to say ‘yes’

One of the key takeaways from the #GetOnaRoll campaign is the effect of simplicity. The campaign’s straightforward ask made it easy for companies to say yes. The idea of printing symptoms on toilet paper rolls and signs was a small change for retailers but had the potential for significant impact. This low bar to get involved helped multiple companies join the cause quickly, showing that if your initial objective is to directly help the mission, rather than generate lots of cash, then a straightforward request is usually more likely to work. (Note, of course a secondary objective may be generating funds – this campaign has also had some great financial wins as well – but there is great value, if you want to start the relationships with key companies, in making it easy to say yes).

Lesson 2: Find and empower passionate advocates to tell their story

The campaign’s success was driven by advocates within the corporate world. Cara is a long-standing supporter of Bowel Cancer UK, and an employee of Marks and Spencer (M&S). She was the catalyst for the first partnership. Her connection to the cause and her determination to make a difference moved her to approach M&S with the idea. For other charities wanting to make things happen, there are few things more valuable than identifying individuals within companies who genuinely care about your cause and can potentially champion it from within.

Lesson 3: If at first you don’t succeed…

Although it ultimately grew quickly, the seeds for the #GetOnaRoll campaign had been sown and nurtured long before.

Cara had been a loyal, active supporter and volunteer of the charity for several years before her action sparked the initiative in her company. Inspired by the example of Dame Deborah James, in 2022 she shared her initial idea for raising awareness through M&S’s toilet roll packaging. She submitted the idea through M&S’s colleague suggestion scheme, Straight to Stuart, which led to this partnership.

Crucially, she and the charity saw this not as the end, but the beginning of something even more exciting.

As the M&S CEO Stuart Machin challenged other retailers to join the campaign, Cara, Sabrina and her colleagues made the most of this opportunity to create something far bigger. For instance, Cara approached supermarkets she was connected with, such as Ocado, sharing the story of her own bowel cancer journey so far, and asking them to get involved. Sabrina and her colleagues worked out what it would take to make it as easy as possible for other partners to get involved, and carefully built those relationships and built momentum.

Conclusion

The #GetOnaRoll campaign by Bowel Cancer UK serves as an inspiring example of a different approach to corporate partnerships – ie when you seek several partners in one product category. Its simplicity, the involvement of passionate advocates, and the resourcefulness and persistence of its supporters have been instrumental in its success so far.

You can listen to the full interview with Cara and Sabrina, in Episode 132 of the Fundraising Bright Spots podcast.

Need to grow Corporate Partnerships income this year?

Bright Spot’s flagship course, Corporate Partnerships Mastery Programme, (now in its tenth year) is a blend of masterclasses, individual coaching and other resources which gives you effective techniques and grows your confidence to implement them. Curious? To find out more follow this link.