The View from the Boardroom - UNDP Trinidad and Tobago

The View from the Boardroom - CEO Study on Corporate Social Responsibility in Trinidad and TobagoCHAPTER 3The Third Sector Revisited – Private Sector and Nonprofit PartnershipsThe Third Sector Revisited– Private Sector and NonprofitPartnershipsOver the past few years, partnerships between the business community andnonprofit organisations have become an increasingly integrated feature ofnon-philanthropic forms of CSR and an important configuration of externalsustainability activities and their implementation at least in foreign markets. Incontrast, four years ago the situation with respect to corporate collaboration withCivil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Trinidad and Tobago was described in the2008 UNDP CSR Mapping Report as “limited” particularly in the “planning processof sponsored programmes.” 27 Partnerships have been defined as “a commitmentby a corporation or a group of corporations to work with an organisation froma different economic sector (public and private) and characterized as involving“a commitment of resources – time and effort – by individuals from all partnerorganisations.” 28CHAPTER 3While businesses see NGOs aseffective drivers for CSR - 37.1% ofCEOs expressed this view – NGOsare also legitimizing companies’efforts to secure a license to operate inlocal communities. If conceptualisedmethodologically with expectationson both sides managed in a timelyfashion, social partnering canbecome a rewarding co-productionof developmental gains. Many NGOspossess community access and adegree of specialised knowledge thatcompanies do not have availablein-house but often depend on inthe implementation of their CSRprogrammes. In turn, companieshave the ability to mobilize additionalhuman resources in the form ofcorporate volunteers, provide vitallyimportant financial support toprojects and, through their technicaland business skills, may be ableto assist nonprofit organisationsalso in the area of organisationaldevelopment. Govind Maharaj, CEOof Eastern Commercial Lands Ltd.says about his own NGO experience:“I think the NGOs are doing a goodjob given their limited resources bothin terms of capacity and funding.We for example work with SERVOLto achieve two purposes. Firstly, toget the people of that organizationout into the business world to learna skill or to become more aware ofhow a business runs and it also givesus a pool for recruitment. Nonprofitorganisations could do a lot betterthough if their capacity was enhancedand their funding was increased.”While partnerships with the PrivateSector have undoubtedly the potentialto address the issues of capacity gapsand financial pressure, they also leadto important gains for NGOs in thearea of organizational credibility andprestige when teaming up with a wellknowncorporate entity. While NGOsare able to secure key financial supportand enhance and solidify their statuswithin the national developmentarena, their corporate partners areoften able to derive positive spin-offeffects in terms of their reputationalvalue and the creation of brand equitythrough corporate social marketing. 2927 UNDP/STCIC CSR Mapping Report, p.ix.28 Sandra Waddock, ‘Building Successful Partnerships, Sloan Management Review, Summer 1988, p.18.29 See Steve Hoeffler, Kevin Lane Keller, ‘Building Brand Equity Through Corporate Societal Marketing’, in: Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Vol.21, No.12, Spring 2002, pp. 78-89.49