Partnering for progress: Business partnership with non-profits in New Zealand

Abstract

This paper examines partnerships between business organisations and non-profits in New Zealand. Collaboration is becoming increasingly essential as organisations grow in both size and influence, and public pressure intensifies for organisations to address pressing social and environmental concerns. An increasing number of businesses have responded by engaging in corporate citizenship programmes to resolve social problems. Social partnerships between business and non-profits are widely promoted as important new strategies which will bring significant benefits to wider stakeholders. A key concern in business/non-profit collaboration is how organisations might collaborate to achieve mutually beneficial objectives and align with the organisations corporate social responsibility. This research seeks to develop an understanding of what the objectives of such relationships might be and to what extent these objectives are achieved.