Our inaugural Sport Fundraising Summit on Wednesday 26th February brought together 150 global leaders, fundraisers and donors in sport for good to share knowledge and discuss best practices in the ever-changing world of fundraising. 

The second panel of the day convened four industry leaders to discuss corporate partnerships in the sport for development sector. This blog revisits the main themes and strategic advice they shared, offering valuable perspectives on current shifts in corporate partnership models, strategies for building successful relationships, and navigating evolving political landscapes.

Sally Nnamani, Co-Executive Director at Peace Players USA, expertly moderated the discussion, while each panellist contributed valuable perspectives from their respective organisations: James Steven (Global Head of Fundraising at Common Goal), Ashley Czarnowski (Senior Director, Global Purpose Marketing at Adidas), and Ecem Acar (Strategic Advisor at Special Olympics Europe Eurasia).

Shifting Corporate Partnership Models

The panel began by examining the fundamental shifts in corporate partnership approaches. The panellists identified a clear movement away from transactional relationships, where organisations remain relatively detached from one another, toward more authentic and integrated collaborations. Similar to charitable and community organisations, businesses have distinct beliefs, values, and priorities that they seek to advance through partnerships.

Over the past decade, corporations have increasingly prioritised these values-based connections, making them more central to their partnership decisions. When seeking corporate partners, organisations must therefore tailor their approaches to align with brand-specific goals and priorities. As James from Common Goal articulated, "we think a lot about where does purpose sit and what's the role that purpose plays to those brands"; aligning with companies that share similar visions and values creates the foundation for authentic and sustainable corporate partnerships.

‘A lot of us on the brand side at big corporations have brand beliefs or brand purposes … we’ve seen a shift really over the last five to ten years of trying to be more authentic in those partnerships.’ Ashley Czarnowski, Adidas.

Building Successful Partnerships

The panel emphasised that developing meaningful relationships with corporate partners requires more than simply having a designated representative for regular communications. Ecem highlighted the importance of establishing "multiple touch points" within partner organisations to ensure robust connections across different business areas. "You need to talk to comms, you need to talk to legal, you need to work with the volunteers and the organisation," she advised. This multifaceted approach helps interweave and align charitable organisations with their corporate partners, creating depth and resilience in the relationship.

By contrast, less successful partnerships often feature minimal interaction—perhaps with only one or two corporate representatives—leading to fragile connections that lack institutional embedding.

According to Ashley, another critical element of successful corporate partnerships is establishing a clear, shared vision and set of values. For Adidas, this is "first and foremost [...] the most important thing" in building effective corporate relationships. Organisations must therefore be selective about the corporations they approach, pursuing only those with whom they share core purpose and mission alignment. This ensures partnerships work toward common goals, providing clear direction and facilitating meaningful conversations centred on mutual vision and values.

As James noted, when evaluating potential corporate partnerships, "the very first thing we always look at is that bigger picture, what's the alignment in kind of vision or values between these two organisations" and consequently, "how do you operationalise it?" Shared goals alone are insufficient; there must be practical mechanisms for translating partnership potential into tangible results. The panel identified three fundamental levels to this process:

1. Aligning values into goals, objectives and KPIs → such as by using SMART goal setting to transfer ideologies into actionable tasks.

2. Ensuring the partnership survives personnel changes → which organisations can achieve by leveraging multiple relationships across the partnership rather than concentrating all communication with a select few. Within this approach, it is important that the organisation itself engages a diverse team to interact with the corporate partner so that when staffing inevitably changes, the relationship itself remains intact.

3. Establishing ongoing, frequent communication → echoing the grant-making panel from earlier in the day regarding funder stewardship, the panellists advocated for developing active relationships with corporate partners through regular updates, meetings, and consistent communications.

Advice for Smaller Organisations

Following this strategic overview, the panellists offered practical guidance specifically tailored to smaller and grassroots organisations. The discussion emphasised taking a realistic approach to building corporate partnerships, with Ecem highlighting that "as difficult as it is, you need to say no [...] if you don't have the resources, you need to say no if you don't have a know-how of the specific target that they're trying to reach."

Too often, organisations that aren't yet prepared for major corporate engagements invest valuable time and resources pursuing highly competitive partnerships. While completing these often complex processes provides good practice, smaller organisations might benefit more from first clarifying their organisational vision and values before approaching corporates. As previously discussed, clearly articulated vision and values enable organisations to identify closely aligned corporate prospects and focus their limited resources on developing compelling proposals for these select opportunities.

"Have some sort of really high-level five-slide deck that talks about what you're doing and the barriers that you're focusing on and what your vision and goal for the future is."

The panel also provided insights into impact measurement approaches from a corporate perspective. Ashley and Ecem described complementary quantitative and qualitative methods employed by their organisations. While Adidas "measure[s] the number of fields, courts, tracks and open spaces [...] refurbished or buil[t]" as well as the "number of beneficiaries that are receiving funding by ongoing programming," Ecem questioned the limitations of purely quantitative metrics, noting that "if you're touching one person with intellectual disability, you're touching eight because it's their family members" too.

The panellists agreed that personal case studies and beneficiary consultations powerfully supplement quantitative data. For corporate partners, it's important that organisations leverage both measurement approaches to demonstrate how their shared vision and values translate into real-world impact.

Navigating Political Shifts

Sally concluded the panel by inviting participants to discuss how corporations respond to political shifts. The panellists agreed that when thematic areas central to a corporation's partnership strategy—whether climate change, poverty alleviation, or health initiatives—gain political prominence, this presents "an opportunity to support what [they've] always supported and continue to support it and not back down." These moments validate corporate visions and values, potentially expanding the pool of aligned non-profit partners if organisations adapt their focus to these thematic areas.

However, the panel strongly advised organisations to maintain authenticity to their core values and vision, regardless of which topics dominate current news cycles or political discourse. Authenticity and shared goals remain fundamental to effective long-term partnerships between corporates and non-profits; the political landscape continuously evolves, making it impossible and inadvisable to constantly shift organisational focus in response.

Ashley specifically cautioned non-profits against "getting too loud about something that is making headlines and being extremely controversial at the time." Such opportunistic positioning can damage organisational credibility and lead potential partners to question authenticity and transparency—undermining the very foundation of successful partnerships.

Looking Forward

The second panel of our inaugural Sport Fundraising Summit shed light on the often over-complicated nature of corporate partnerships. The discussion consistently emphasised that remaining authentic to your organisation's mission, vision, and values is paramount, with panellists reinforcing that partnerships must be built on shared goals and purpose to become long-lasting and mutually beneficial.

These insights align with our 2025 Benchmark Report findings, which revealed that diversifying funding sources—including through strategic corporate partnerships—is essential for organisational sustainability, with 71% of organisations citing diversification as a key growth driver. The panel discussion underscored that sustainable partnership success requires strategic alignment, authentic storytelling, and collaborative approaches that position corporate engagement as a genuine partnership rather than a mere transaction.

On behalf of the team at Remedy, we are incredibly grateful to the panelists for sharing their insights and experiences, and would like to thank Sally for moderating such an interesting discussion. 

What's Next?

• Download our2025 Benchmark Report for a deeper dive into the current fundraising landscape

• Assess your organisation's readiness with our freeFundraising Readiness Tool to identify strengths and areas for improvement

• Join us next Monday for a closer look into the third and final panel discussion of the day: Institutional Funding in Sport for Good.

Written by Lucy Wilkes.