"It's easy for nonprofits to fall into the mindset that corporate partnerships are entirely transactional: Our organizations get money in exchange for feel-good publicity for the company."
That's what LavaMaeX, a not-for-profit that brings mobile showers and other essential services to the street, has to say about its three-year, $1.275 million partnership with Unilever's Right to Shower.
Over that time, LavaMaeX was able to disperse $370,000 in grants to 28 organizations that served more than 53,000 guests in 44 US cities, and it was able to refine its one-on-one mentoring program, develop LavaMaeX Connect, a global community space where people learn how to replicate our model, and create a new toolkit for producing Pop-Up Care Villages, where guests can get haircuts, medical care, legal advice, employment assistance, and other free services.
"We never could have accomplished all this with a one-year or single-project grant," says LavaMaeX's CEO in a blog post.
But it wasn't all good news.
Right to Shower also helped the LavaMaeX create a do-it-yourself handwashing station, helped it create a 12-episode podcast, and Read the Entire Article
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Chief executive of HCT, Dai Powell, shares the experiences and practical lessons he learned along the way when teaming up with Ealing Community Transport to deliver site transport during the Olympic Park construction.