The British Heart Foundation

 

The Brief

We were asked to work with two newly appointed Corporate Partnerships team heads (the Head of New Business and the Head of Account Management) to review the BHF’s strategic approach to winning and developing corporate partnerships.  

 

Our approach

First, we spent time looking at the bigger organisational picture - conducting interviews with directors and senior managers in order to understand BHF’s vision, its strategy, financial needs, service delivery priorities, its positioning and future plans, and how these factors might impact upon corporate fundraising.

 

We then conducted a thorough evaluation of the internal environment for corporate fundraising, reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of the existing set-up and culture - e.g. team structure, skill-set and knowledge, internal relationships, pressure points and the ‘political’ issues needing to be addressed.

 

The third stage was a full corporate fundraising review, during which we analysed the existing strategy and corporate 'offer'; resourcing requirements; the skills gap; current partnerships & targets; proposals; the corporate case for support etc.  

 

Finally, we considered the external environment & marketplace for BHF’s fundraising, a process which looked at factors such as trends in CSR, the economic situation, the activities of competitor charities etc.

 

Outcomes

Upon completion of the strategic review, we made a number of recommendations relating to the strategic, cultural & behavioural changes needed within the team. We then worked with the two team heads to develop a new three-year corporate fundraising strategy and helped to engage the rest of the team in this process.

 

We also improved the British Heart Foundation’s offer to companies by developing a new corporate fundraising theme and positioning statement: ‘Putting BHF at the HEART of Business’ – a concept which was subsequently incorporated into all subsequent BHF proposals, pitches and corporate applications, to great effect.