March 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 49

Leveraging Corporate
Relationships
Through these conversations, a series of shared suggestions for the
basic building blocks of successful
corporate partnerships emerged.
These findings help provide first
steps, as well as guardrails, for
thinking about how best to leverage
corporate relationships.
Align your fundraising with your
strategy. Use it to create points of
reference that support strategic
partnerships:
* Create a strategic plan and be
sure it includes a list of projects
and tasks specifically for corporate partnerships.
* Identify what part of your plan a
project can support before beginning conversations with prospective corporate partners.
* Leverage the assets and resources
you already have. Use park master plans, program calendars and
other tools to create alignment
with corporate prospects.
* Set your terms, but be flexible. Offer a menu of options or opportunities for support, including price
points. This helps to ensure your

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF MAURA LOUT/CENTRAL PARK CONSERVANCY

* Educating corporate partners is
still one of the biggest hurdles our
participants encounter. Ensuring
partners understand that funding
is required to keep a park in good
shape continues to be a challenge.
* Saying " no " often feels wrong,
even when the corporate gift is not
a good match. But, sometimes, it
is the right course of action and
will provide longer-term benefits.
* Reconciling the size of the local corporate community with the needs
among park organizations and
agencies can be challenging. Participants wondered how to address a
finite pool of prospects and " competition " among local park projects.

Participants at the Urban Park Roundtable share eﬀective strategies and
challenges of corporate philanthropy for
urban parks.

corporate partner knows the value
of your time and the opportunity
you will create for their company.
* Get comfortable with saying no!
This can be a very intimidating
prospect, especially when you are
cultivating your first partnerships.
But, use it as an opportunity to
educate and build your relationship by finding common ground.
Focus on long-term vs.
short-term dollars:
* Be honest about the cost. The
corporation is getting something
of value and that should be made
abundantly clear. Staff time, access to restrooms, training (however minimal), refreshments and
your other services all have value.
* Make a plan and commit resources
for a successful, in-park volunteer
day. Invest in making sure it is a
well-run, organized event to avoid
undermining your staff, turning off
current donors or dissuading future
donors. Use this as a chance to both
address needs and build success.
Build a good partnership:
* Be transparent. It builds trust
and helps both partners to establish and set clear expectations.
* Create internal champions. Meet
regularly with internal teams and
departments to gain an understanding of their needs and communicate how a partnership might
serve the organization at large.
* Add representatives from corporate
sectors to boards and committees to
support clarity and shared vision.
* Be sure both partners know the
" theme " of the partnership.
* Leverage on-site events to serve as
a visual and physical case for support and offer a direct connection

to a specific aspect of a park.
* Grow corporate partner relationships through ongoing engagement.
Create a united local front:
* Establish citywide coordination
or partner coalitions between nonprofits/agency partners to develop
guidelines, share resources and establish standards across city green
spaces for corporate partners.

What Is Best for Your Park
and Stakeholders?
Because of the dynamic overlap of
social, political and cultural factors
at play in urban parks, corporate
partnerships with park nonprofits
and agencies will vary in scope, scale
and execution. One of the biggest
takeaways from the Detroit roundtable, however, was that it is OK to set
the terms that are best for your park
- even if that means passing on the
first opportunity. But, using the takeaways from our roundtables will help
you find an opportunity that meets
both your needs and the needs of
your future corporate partners.
The next Urban Park Roundtable will
take place May 6-8, 2020, in Raleigh,
North Carolina. For more information,
visit centralparknyc.org/institute.
Maura Lout is the Executive Director of the Central Park
Conservancy's Institute for Urban Parks (mlout@
centralparknyc.org).

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March 2020 - Parks & Recreation

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