148. How to Land a Strategic Corporate Partner to Advance Your Mission - Carol Cone
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Overview
Meet Carol. She's one of the world's pioneers of social impact connecting businesses to purpose. You might have heard a couple of her campaigns like Go Red for Women and Grow Up Great among others who have yielded more than $2.5B for various social causes. She's talking through the future of social purpose and how to build movements of believers. And if you're a sucker for a feel good story, her partnership to create the My Aflac Duck for pediatric cancer patients is a joyous one.
Today’s Guest
Carol Cone, Founder and CEO, ON PURPOSE
“You need to be strategic and business-oriented. You can still have the heart, but you need to have that so that you will be built to last because some of these issues aren’t going to be solved overnight.”
Episode Transcript
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Episode Highlights
Carol’s journey and story to where she is today (2:50)
Creating cohesive partnerships between nonprofit and for-profit organizations (5:00)
How nonprofits can leverage purpose-driven impact today (7:42)
Be thoughtful and analytical (8:20)
Questions to ask yourself before and during a partnership meeting (11:30)
What are our goals?
Ask the partner what their goals are
Where the magic happens - your shared goals.
Set objectives, milestones, measurement, reporting, and use the same language
The future of the social impact space (16:00)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Carol’s life (21:00)
Carol’s One Good Thing: The magic is in our goals, your goals, shared goals.
Powerful quotes
“You need to matter today, in a very internet enabled world, where we all with our pocketbooks can buy from, work for, and advocate for with the internet.” -Carol
“The first thing is you have got to think like a business.” -Carol
“You've got to provide an asset of exceptional value that has grass tops, grass roots, it has content, execution, and engagement, or you're not going to be able to compete today.” -Carol
“You have to be a self learner.” -Carol
“So you’re talking about purpose, being very thoughtful and analytical.” -Carol
“You need to be strategic and business oriented. You can still have the heart, but you need to have that so that you will be built to last because some of these issues aren’t going to be solved overnight.” -Carol
“During the pandemic, so many companies got it. Because of their employees, they recognized, whether they were purpose driven or not, that their core engine, their employees had to be protected.” -Carol
“When people had the luxury and the opportunity to still work from home for 15-16 months, they ask the question when they're being brought back to the office, is it worth it?” - Carol
“Companies have got to provide the space for listening for sharing. Let's share our human experiences. Then look at your purpose, and I think people are gonna start thinking about their personal purpose.” -Carol
“The companies that are really sophisticated, are going to take some time, but in six months over the next year, they're going to be aligning the company purpose and the individual purpose.” -Carol
“It has to be authentic, it has to be aligned, you have to have experts play the long game, but you also need to have the early wins. And you also have to be flexible and pivot if necessary.” -Carol
Connect with Carol and on purpose
Website / LinkedIn / Harvard Business Case / Aflac Story
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Watch the full Family Reach story mentioned in the midroll below! 🎉
