Common Interest, Common Good:
Creating Value Through Business
and Social Sector Partnerships by Eli
Segal
More Relevant Today Than Ever!
This hardcover edition is available only in a premium, full-cloth binding. It
will not ship with a dust jacket. With funding for nonprofits shrinking and
global markets shaky, our business and social sectors are both confronting
an increasingly uncertain future. Many organizations are searching for
innovative strategies that will counter the mounting pressures felt by
communities and corporations alike. Common Interest, Common Good
argues that forward-looking businesses and social sector organizations
(both nonprofit and government) can solve many of their problems by
working together-while serving the common good in the process.
According to Shirley Sagawa and Eli Segal, alliances between for-profit
and the not-for-profit industries yield enormous benefits for both.
Businesses can boost their bottom line by leveraging a nonprofit
partnership to enhance their image, reach new markets, increase
consumer loyalty, and build a positive reputation with current and
prospective employees. The upside is just as powerful for nonprofits,
because an alliance with a corporation can provide crucial funds and
visibility while helping to attract new volunteers and donors. Common
Interest, Common Good showcases many such successful partnerships,
from corporate sponsorships and cause-related marketing to employee
volunteer programs and school-to-work initiatives. The authors also offer
some much-needed guidance for avoiding many of the pitfalls that can
undermine even the best alliances. A convincing, deeply felt book by two
authors who have devoted much of their careers to helping public and
private sectors find profitable new ways of working together, Common
Interest, Common Good is a guided tour of the progressive new strategies
that can contribute to the purpose of our businesses and the prosperity of
our communities.
Personal Review: Common Interest, Common Good: Creating
Value Through Business and Social Sector Partnerships by Eli
Segal
Every company I know is interested in getting and providing a great deal.
Every nonprofit I know is committed to the greater welfare of the society.
But almost no companies and nonprofits know how to link together to

multiply their effectiveness in achieving their purposes. This book
provides outstanding examples and a superb template for creating
partnerships of great value for all involved: companies, their employees,
nonprofits, and the communities that everyone serves. Based on the
examples in this book, it looks like the benefits can easily be 20 to 1 in the
near term from the time and money invested. That kind of return is hard
to find in business, philanthropy, or social entrepreneurship. The reason it
happens is that the company can add value that the nonprofit cannot, and
vice versa. The strategic partnership is not unlike the strategic alliances
that companies create all the time with comapnies that offer unique
strategic capabilities.The reason these benefit are so large (and growing)
is because customers and employees are ever more responsive to
promoting a social cause, companies are getting better at partnering with
outside organizations, and the expertise of nonprofits is growing.
Businesses can gain by getting low-cost recognition from customers that
will increase sales, obtaining low-cost resources, making work more
meaningful to employees (helping to retain them), attracting employees
more easily, and learning how cause-based leadership can transform an
organization. When you look at it from a dollar and cents point of view,
these partnerships would pass any accounting test you want to use. Not
to seek out these partnerships is to waste potential for growth and profits
in your company. Corporate boards should be asking company CEOs to
develop these partnerships!Nonprofits can gain by learning how to
increase outcomes they care about, gaining access to resources that
would otherwise be unavailable, getting more exposure, and finding
improved ways of meeting their missions.Communities will gain by getting
more resources, expertise, and attention from social entrepreneurs in
companies and nonprofits. So this is a win-win-win world, but somebody
has to get it going. Chapter ten is excellent on that subject: It proposes a
5 step model for the nonprofit -- self assess, identify a partner, connect to
that partner, test the relationship idea, and grow the relationship.
Although the initiative can come from the company, it usually won't. The
executives already have other agendas, are receiving hundreds of
requests for assistance, and don't know what many nonprofits can do for
them. You can add some corporate executives to your nonprofit board
who will understand companies to help you make these connections. The
biggest hurdle will be the lack of corporate experience of your nonprofit's
staff. Nonprofits are used to looking for a check, not a partnership. But
that reliance on gifts alone is stalled thinking that will hold back the
development of the public good.The case histories include Home Depot
and KaBOOM! (building playgrounds), Microsoft and the American Library
Association (adding computers and Internet services to libraries in low-
income areas), Denny's and Save the Children (raising money for poor
children), BankBoston and City Year (sponsoring volunteers in community
work), Ridgeview, Inc. and Newton-Conover Public Schools (creating
better public schools and better parent involvement from employees with
children), and Boeing and Pioneer Human Services (creating airplane
parts by employing those with disadvantaged backgrounds). I found all of
them to be interesting and well analyzed. Each one gave me ideas for

how to pursue opportunties like these for the nonprofit on whose board I
serve. I especially recommend this book to company leaders, human
resource executives, purchasing managers, and marketing planners. On
the nonprofit side, this book will be a revelation to staffs and board
members.After you have read this book, please join the board of a
nonprofit (if you are not already on one). Then, please use the processes
in this book to create a strategic partnership with your company or another
one in your community. You will gain strategic partnering skills and a
sense of a job well done. The others will gain the benefits described
above. If we each did this, our communities would soon be far more
wonderful places to live and work.
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