The role of business in society is changing. Philanthropy is no longer the primary way that businesses make the world a better place. Increasingly, through public-private partnerships (P3s), businesses, nonprofits, and governments are working together to address entrenched issues, like poverty and climate change. By pooling funding, assets, and expertise, partnerships are capable of generating a greater impact than individual efforts could…combined. Particularly in today’s world of constrained resources, P3s are attractive tools for accomplishing mutually beneficial outcomes. Unfortunately, governments, businesses, and nonprofits alike are often unsure how and if to reach across sectors.
Initiatives like Global Partnerships Week (GPW) help address this hesitancy by highlighting the impact of partnerships across geographies and industries. As a platform to promote and support cross-sector collaboration, Concordia was thrilled to co-host last week’s GPW with the U.S. Department of State Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Highlights of the week are now available here.
Concordia is a platform for leaders of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to identify and capitalize on opportunities for collaboration. Through the annual Concordia Summit and other year-round programming, Concordia brings together stakeholders to discuss global issues and collaborative solutions. Concordia’s research, including the Concordia Partnership Index, guides these collaborations to ensure that the full potential of P3s is realized.
Throughout GPW, companies, governments, and nonprofits from around the world contributed to the discussion of collaboration in today’s world. The modern P3 can be formed in any industry (e.g. health, financial services) with any number and type of partners. Therefore, a company can better align a collaborative venture with its core business. The result? A better bottom line and a greater social impact. Companies are realizing that through P3s, they can do well by doing good. Mike Wege of The Hershey Company (whose CocoaLink program won the 2014 P3 Impact Award) acknowledged the strength of P3s in his acceptance speech: “CocoaLink’s success in improving the lives of smallholder cocoa farmers, their families, and communities is directly attributable to the power of P3s.”
To learn more about GPW or to get involved, please visit P3.co. Follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #GPW2015 and following the GPW hosts @ConcordiaSummit, @GPatState, and @USAID.
To learn more about Concordia, visit us at Concordia.net or watch our quick Concordia Summit video here.
One Response
Collaboration is the way to go now. Everyone needs to work together to address poverty and environmental issues, this results in better results than divergent efforts. Nice post!