Eradicating hunger globally –  with companies?

The context

Imagine that your organization’s goal is the global eradication of hunger and malnutrition. There can hardly be a more fundamental goal, given that humans die quite rapidly without water or food.

Hunger and food insecurity is a result of war, state collapse or political crisis, the abandonment of rural areas, urban and rural poverty, lack of planning, lack of knowledge, climate change, devastation, etc. To achieve your goal, several complex projects and alliances are needed. Also involving companies.

“But companies are not in the game to improve the world; they are in the game to make money, which includes improving their reputation. This is the only reason they engage”, says one of the organization’s directors.

Is that a problem?

Well, that depends. It may be irrelevant if you only focus on your goals. However, it may become very relevant if you imagine these companies co-branding with your logo, improving their reputation while your organization may be losing it…

Nevertheless, solving these problems is inconceivable without the partnership of companies.

The issue

The Boston College Corporate Citizenship Center, a knowledge centre based in Boston, USA, invited Nelmara Arbex and other partners to engage in this project, and help the organization to understand current business challenges and get to know their potential partners better. This involved learning how these companies react to stakeholders’ demands, and how they build trust and reputation.

The project

A week-long programme was planned for the organization’s directors and managers on how to address these issues. The programme included capacity-building in areas such as designing partnerships, trust-building and transparency within partnerships, negotiation and communication, how to read corporate reports, etc.

If you are a not-for-profit organization and believe you would benefit from this type of training, contact us.

text and photo by Nelmara Arbex

keywords: global not-for-profit against hunger / building partnership with companies / reputational risks / public commitments