Craig Pollard [00:01:02]:
Welcome back to the Fundraising Radicals podcast. I'm your host, Craig Pollard. Today's conversation is with Irene Arellano, who is head of innovation and business development at Peru. Irene is working to build transformational partnerships between the cause and companies in Peru that are grounded in shared purpose. This is about bringing together funding, social impact and sustainability, and redefining roles so we can free ourselves to build new sorts of partnerships between causes and companies that aren't bound by traditional, narrow roles of who can deliver impact and how. I've always been blown away by Irene's generosity, her willingness to honestly reflect on her experiences and to share what has worked and what hasn't. I know you'll enjoy hearing from Irene today.
Craig Pollard [00:02:03]:
Welcome, Irene Arellano Pineda, all the way from Peru. It's lovely to see you today and thanks for joining me on the Fundraising Radicals podcast.
Irene Arellano [00:02:13]:
Thank you, Craig, thank you for having me and hello to everybody who will be listening to this. Very happy to be here.
Craig Pollard [00:02:23]:
Tell me about what you do, where you are. I know you're sort of very focused on innovation within the international development space and I'd love to hear more about that.
Irene Arellano [00:02:33]:
Sure. So, my name is Irene Arellano, if you want to practise your Spanish, and I am the head of innovation and business development at in Peru. And what is this? You know, in nonprofits, we usually have a team specialised in fundraising, like restricted, unrestricted funds. What I now do at care is to think about how social innovation opportunities can bring both things to the field, impact as well as resources to the organisation. So that's what I am developing at Peru right now and I'm based in Lima, Peru.
Craig Pollard [00:03:15]:
And what was behind the motivation for Peru? Setting up and deciding to focus on social innovation?
Irene Arellano [00:03:24]:
So there is a reality that I think every single professional in the field is sensing for over the past decade maybe, is that there is not always enough funding. I think only last year, if we are only looking at humanitarian funding that is needed in the world, there is a 75% gap, and that is being increasing over the years. So we felt this. We know that there are opportunities to implement the work that we do, which is reducing poverty, especially for women and girls in the country. But sometimes there is not enough funding or the projects are not maybe on the topics that we think we need to be. So, yeah, that's a reality. So there is a huge fundraising gap in the world for so many things that should be done, but there is just not enough money from donations, from philanthropy. So we thought, what else can we do, right? So I consider that we are entering in a new era of, I call it for good era, which means it's not only the responsibility for the government to look after the well being of people and reducing poverty and stuff is not only the responsibility of nonprofits.
Irene Arellano [00:04:56]:
It's now a huge pressure on the private sector, and not only to do grants or to implement projects, but to think outside of the box and figure out how their business can also bring benefits, financial benefits to their stakeholders, but also while promoting impact and not harming the environment. So we think we need to use this force. We need to be in that table, talking to these people, not only asking them for money, but join them or bringing them to the conversation. What can we do together to impact at a bigger scale and doing things better together? So that is why social innovation is, we think the field, the space, we both join together.
Craig Pollard [00:05:47]:
And are you seeing interest for this reflected on the other side of these partnerships within the companies, in the corporate space?
Irene Arellano [00:05:59]:
Short answer is it is getting there. It's not 100% yes right now, but I think just last year there are new regulations, some way to other. They're going to get there because consumers, regulations, standards, things are changing. And now we need to start talking about this more and more. You know, philanthropy, that's great, that's awesome. It's been important, but for the private sector, they feel the pressure already to start doing more interesting.
Craig Pollard [00:06:39]:
And is that pressure coming from. It's coming from regulation, from government. It's coming from the public expectations of corporate sector. It's challenging, right? Because these partnership signets sort of tend to fall on between sort of, sort of transactional cash transaction. But you're talking about the other end of that continuum, which is much more transformational projects. That's what you're talking about. And this is a challenging space. Right.
Craig Pollard [00:07:07]:
Sort of dragging companies, but within northern NGOs as well, to create that space. So how is this space being created within Peru?
Irene Arellano [00:07:21]:
Okay, so I think first of all, social innovation. The core of that is we create financial returns, but we also create impact. It does not stop on not doing no harm. No, it's more than that. We create impact. We live something better to the world while getting financial returns.
Craig Pollard [00:07:46]:
Can you give me an example? I guess we're talking about social. So what? For Peru is an example of social innovation.
Irene Arellano [00:07:56]:
So right now we are piloting two specific, let's say, products or models. The first one that has been running for a year, a bit more than a year, is the consulting services that we provide to the private sector. To first understand what are we talking when we're saying multidimensional poverty? Why does it matter that you take care of your employees? Why it is important not only to invest, to provide some school kids in, I don't know, the beginning of the year, but you also can improve education. How does this improvement can affect your future business? That is what we do at this kind of new model. We start the conversation with them, we speak in their language how the impact that they can create in terms of development. It also is going to impact their business and their resilience in general terms. Not only thinking about the risks. Right.
Irene Arellano [00:09:12]:
Not only thinking about what could go wrong, but also how can they be more prepared for future scenarios. So that's the first thing we are doing. And it's mainly consulting services for the strategy element of corporations. So we're not only working with the teams in the organisations that are in charge of doing grants or giving grants or doing specific projects. We work with the CEO, we work with the board members sometimes.
Craig Pollard [00:09:46]:
Is that a prerequisite that you work with the senior people in the strategic space? Is that sort of where you feel it can make the most impact and difference?
Irene Arellano [00:09:54]:
Yeah, I think if you want to do business in general, that's the level you need to start speaking to. Right. But it's not the minimum requirement. We are figuring out what is the best way. But at the end of the day, what we want to do is to really change something within the organisation. Because if we only do a small project, a small pilot with them, and nothing goes after that as an organisation, as care, we haven't done our job right. If there is only a campaign, only a volunteering project, it's not enough. We want to go farther.
Irene Arellano [00:10:42]:
That's how this consulting unit is aligned with our purpose. If we don't get there. I mean, we get of course, some funding and we get resources and that's great. But it has also to be aligned with our purpose.
Craig Pollard [00:10:57]:
And it feels very sort of this multidimensional because there's an element of sort of educating companies as well. So it feels quite sort of like an ecosystem approach, bringing these companies into this sort of social justice equity ecosystem.
Irene Arellano [00:11:15]:
Yes, it is definitely that we think of ourselves and there is a saying in Spanish that is called we are 'el tercero confiable', which means we are the third party in a conversation that brings other parties together. So we make the most of that, I think, asset that we have as an organisation. So the ultimate goal or the ultimate impact in the city of change behind this model, this consulting unit, is to create more resources, combining public and private funds to reduce vulnerability in the country. So for that we need to start doing, having more of these conversations. If you wanted to call it educating the private sector, yes, educating maybe the private sector, but speaking to their terms and to find this common ground where we can vision a potential bigger impact together.
Craig Pollard [00:12:23]:
Because it is a different language, isn't it?
Irene Arellano [00:12:25]:
It is.
Craig Pollard [00:12:26]:
And do you find yourself sort of halfway between sort of care and halfway between the corporate sector? Because those two cultures are very different. Do you see yourself sort of as a broker between those sectors in that way? As sort of head of the innovation unit?
Irene Arellano [00:12:42]:
Yeah, it is definitely. And I think if people, there must be an office of care in the world. We are one of the most important nonprofits in the world. We have presence in more than 111 countries. So there is a huge brand, a huge, of course, a legacy. You can call it in pride of being part of care and sometimes, unfortunately, in specific topics. It's challenging for the teams to see the opportunity working with the private sector because unfortunately, in regions like Latin America, the private sector, they don't necessarily have the best image in terms of development and protecting the environment.
Craig Pollard [00:13:44]:
Mining companies, so very sort of a lot of mining.
Irene Arellano [00:13:48]:
Yeah.
Craig Pollard [00:13:49]:
And where is that coming from? Is that in Peru or is that a global issue? I mean, every northern NGO, right, northern headquartered NGO is facing this within their corporate partnerships, right?
Irene Arellano [00:14:04]:
Yeah. So first of, like we in Peru and in general in the world, we are a network of independent organisations, right? But we work together, it's a great network. So we face challenges in fundraising in general all over the world, as I just said, however, the dynamics are different in the north. I see as somebody who's interested in this field that there is so much that has been done in terms of social innovation and talking to the private sector and working together. But there is a cultural difference, some specific expectations that you cannot repeat that quite easily to the global south.
Craig Pollard [00:14:56]:
This is really interesting, right, because we've had this conversation before, right, about the dominant global fundraising orthodoxy is grounded in very narrow experiences of fundraising in North America, in Europe. And there's sort of a lack of translation, a lack of reflection as to the relevance of that culturally into specific contexts across Asia, Africa, Middle East, Latin America, the Pacific. It just doesn't work. So in many ways, what you're doing is sort of finding your own innovation, whatever it's called, path to resourcing, that's sort of relevant culturally to your context. That's really exciting and important.
Irene Arellano [00:15:44]:
Thank you. Thank you, Craig. We are excited about this, too. I dare to say that in Peru, we might be the only nonprofit doing this, like exploring social innovation, exploring other ways to do partnerships with the corporate sector. But I'm not trying to say that this is a brand new in the world. There is so much experience and there is so much. We can learn a lot from other countries and other nonprofits that are doing this in a different way. But what we need to understand in this journey of exploring innovation, infant raising, is that there is no recipe, right? Like, there is no specific roadmap on this.
Irene Arellano [00:16:31]:
There are guidelines, great ideas, great efforts, but the part of which is something I've been experiencing for the last year that I've been doing this. You are going to fail some things. The innovator mindset, you have to have it there and fail and fail faster in order to iterate and try to improve this, it's going to happen. And sometimes this is not something that nonprofits are used to. I mean, we have so little money, we have so little time, our resources are so limited that if you don't have the support, the right conditions, I would say organisational conditions, and the support and the belief that this is worth trying, it could be more challenging. That's not my case. Fortunately, I have the support, the conditions, some resources, and to really start doing these trying things and learning and hopefully sharing my learnings in platforms like this.
Craig Pollard [00:17:38]:
Tell me about sort of this permission to fail. This space for innovation is, as you say, so vital and so important and so often not there. Can you tell me about your sort of learning process, maybe with examples of how you have shifted and pivoted and changed your approach over the last year or so?
Irene Arellano [00:18:02]:
Yes. So I was telling you that we have two kind of pilots right now the first one is the consulting service and the examples I have is for that. However, we have another one that we are creating an impact investment fund to manage resources and stuff. I can share about that later, but the first one. So I spent a few weeks working with, I formed a task force to develop the model. I spoke with a bunch, fortunately, of the most important ceos in the country from the private sector, and I launched a few services. I said, these are my five top services that I think I can.
Craig Pollard [00:18:52]:
But that was after your conversation, right. You must have had some ideas. But was it just sort of like that first test of is this sort of viable? Are these products and services that you as chief executive of this company would buy and feel has value?
Irene Arellano [00:19:09]:
Yes, we did that before. I don't know how many, but ideas of what we can bring to the table and that the private sector values from an organisation like air. Because I'm not McKinsey, I'm not BCG. Right. Our value driver is we know how to reduce vulnerability and change the life of people. So we know how to do that. We are on the field, we speak the language of the public sector, we speak the language of the people. So this can be useful to you to improve your products, to improve your strategy.
Irene Arellano [00:19:54]:
So we figure out a bunch of services. We validated five, top five. After speaking with a bunch of the most important CEOs in the country, I went out to try to see how these services were received and I emailed like 100 CEOs or offices and received almost no reply. Like nobody was interested.
Craig Pollard [00:20:25]:
How did you feel after that?
Irene Arellano [00:20:27]:
I failed. I mean, I said, this is. Oh my God, what am I doing? I spent six weeks doing this. I took the time of the team to think about this. I spoke with CEOs, I didn't meet a huge launch of this unit, but soft landing. However, I said, this is not going. I mean, at a personal level, it was not fun. I kind of questioned myself and everything, but that's when this is supposed to happen.
Irene Arellano [00:21:03]:
This is supposed to happen. So it took me, I think, with me and my team a few weeks to kind of figure out and get insights and get data of what are the things that are making the companies reach out to us to reply to this offer. And of course having a few more conversations about why did you not reply? What if this is not interesting to you? And after that we changed completely the services, but that was great because we needed to do that. And now we now are running the services that we know for sure because.
Craig Pollard [00:21:45]:
We are selling them and that first sale, how did you feel compared to the 100 emails and the rejection of that compared to that first sale, how did you feel after that first sale?
Irene Arellano [00:21:58]:
So again, I had two levels. At the very Irene level, how can I call it? I tend to be super focused. So I said, yes, that's happening. Let's finish the sale, let's make. This is a great. I was thinking forward, to be very honest, I felt great. But I was already thinking, this is my pilot, this is me implementing this. Not me.
Irene Arellano [00:22:31]:
I mean, the team, we need to do this right. And at an institutional level, it was very much celebrated. I mean, it was great. It was great. We see now this consulting unit being bigger and bigger every year, hopefully. And this is our goal. That's our goal.
Craig Pollard [00:22:50]:
Well, but as a sort of downstream goal from the social impact side. Right. It sounds like this is bringing about this sort of, in this ecosystem, bringing the corporates into that and sort of engaging them with your vulnerability reduction priorities. Yeah, it's really exciting.
Fundraising Radicals [00:23:09]:
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Fundraising Radicals [00:23:23]:
If you want to find out more about our work, please do visit our website, fundraisingradicals.com. Now back to the conversation.
Craig Pollard [00:23:33]:
Back to, the sort of space created for this. How do you measure success within social innovation? Have you got agreed metrics and how were they agreed on?
Irene Arellano [00:23:46]:
Yes, first, at least for me, is for the stage that we are right now. Everything, it's adapting constantly. It's not set in stone. However, there are some few KPIs that we really. It's not KPIs. I'm sorry. It's like some kind of, let's say, guidelines that we cannot do farther than that. I'm not sure that I'm explaining myself.
Craig Pollard [00:24:19]:
Yeah. Sort of like guardrails or sort of an envelope, whatever it is. But that's really interesting because part of creating the space for innovation is about not measuring the living daylights out of it because it's changing so much and you're evolving all the time. But that's really interesting. So you've sort of created these broad guidelines that will, this is what you're doing, this is how you'll do it, et cetera, and why you're doing it and exploring in this space.
Irene Arellano [00:24:54]:
Yeah, definitely. I think you need to measure. No way. I don't think. You cannot measure the journey, how much effort you're putting into a sale. You can measure. How many meetings did they reply faster with the symbol than the other one. Of course, that takes time.
Irene Arellano [00:25:17]:
That takes a lot of time to gather data, to analyse the data. But it's crucial, I mean, at the stage that we are right now, it's crucial for us to measure everything, like every hour we are spending on a project.
Craig Pollard [00:25:33]:
Okay. But I guess that's internal measurement. Okay. I was thinking with the envelope, maybe external measurement of that space is created and this is what you'll do. But the internal measurement is vital for the learning part as well. Right. So you have data to back up the learning?
Irene Arellano [00:25:53]:
Yeah, absolutely. It is crucial. There is no other way to make decisions, I believe, rather than collecting data and measuring. How are you doing at every stage? So we have KPIs for the sales part, for the reaching out. So we have three stages, like engaging in connecting with new sectors, new companies, new people within the sectors. We have the sales part. That is very. Since I already have like templates of services, a roster of consultants that I pre selected to be easier to respond to any demand.
Irene Arellano [00:26:40]:
That part, it's kind of getting faster and faster every time. It's so much different than doing a grant proposal for, I don't know, USID, any agency, any foundation. Right. It's so different and it has to be faster.
Craig Pollard [00:27:00]:
Because another dominant sort of orthodoxy within fundraising, particularly if you're in place like Peru, is that the focus is on institutional funding. Right. And that's the big chunk of cash. And that brings a sort of technical mindset, the processes which run very deep. That's cultural change, which is two whole different worlds. How are you managing that within the sort of culture, that dominant sort of institutional funding culture?
Irene Arellano [00:27:34]:
So from the very beginning, because this is not new. I mean, in the world maybe kind of new for us, but it was not new from the very beginning. In my research, I spoke with other leaders of these units from nonprofits in the world. And there was an insight that I think I got from the third interview. Teams and teams within the organisation said, no, you cannot mix the same talent you have. Not all the time, but it's challenging. You need to find your own team. But I couldn't hire a team because I didn't have enough sales in order to hire a team and make this sustainable.
Irene Arellano [00:28:22]:
It was a pilot. So that's why we figure out the best way to do it is to have consultants, a roster of consultants that are pre trained, pre selected. So anytime I have the real opportunity, everything just runs faster. Of course, the experts, if there is a specific consulting service that is within the scope of a strategic area that we have and technical expertise. This expert can be part of this. But few hours just to cheque.
Craig Pollard [00:29:00]:
But it's plugged in.
Irene Arellano [00:29:01]:
It's plugged in, yeah. It does not depend on their time sometimes. Oh no, it can be done. I don't know. We are having right now a project where a huge company in the cosmetic sector that has a lot of factories, over 2000 employees at the lowest level. I don't know how to say. They run the machines. They do very specific work, manual work, manual work and they're called operadios like they work in the factories most of the time.
Irene Arellano [00:29:39]:
These people are, these persons and families are in a very vulnerable condition. Sometimes they are the only employed person in the family and there is a lot of challenges. And this company said I want to change the life of my employees. I know I pay them fair. I know I do whatever the peruvian government is asking me to do in terms of how I should treat my employees and stuff. But I want to do more. How? Show me the way. How can I change the life of these 2000 people and their families? How? And this is a huge challenge for us.
Irene Arellano [00:30:24]:
It's like directly not thinking about a regular project of irreducible vulnerability but thinking about a community. Yes, a community within a company. So the first reaction I got from this, it was no, it can be done. No you need like I don't know, $10 million for this. It's like impossible. They don't have this money. That was the first reaction. But then I brought, because I was excited about this idea, I share it and it can be done.
Irene Arellano [00:30:55]:
Of course, I work with my team. I brought the specific consultants for this and we are now finding ways to suggest a strategy to this company to do this with the support of other organisations, international corporation and why not even public funding that it's sometimes there but it's not well used. So this is the mindset that we need. And it's not that the technical aspect doesn't matter. No. It's just to start the conversation, meet in the middle and this can happen.
Craig Pollard [00:31:31]:
Yeah. And do you see talking about sort of the culture change on the sort of internal side but do you see sort of change, changing mindset within these companies that you're working with as they sort of work with you?
Irene Arellano [00:31:49]:
So to be fair for us it's been only a year or so doing this. In our theory of changes to promote bigger impact with the active support and funding from the private sectors we are not there yet but we are seeing some changes. For instance, we provide technical assistance to a communications. A media. A channel.
Craig Pollard [00:32:18]:
Yeah, media channel.
Irene Arellano [00:32:19]:
Like one of the biggest in the country. And they said, oh, you know, I just need a workshop of 2 hours to work about inclusion. So my people understand that they cannot put this word when they are sharing news. They have to use a different word when they talk about a specific topic, about women. They cannot use these words. They should use this one. So I need a workshop for 2 hours. We change that from only a workshop to you need to have a policy of diversity, inclusion.
Irene Arellano [00:32:56]:
You need to train your HR staff in this. From one workshop to a roadmap of how can they become the first channel in the country that really cares about gender, quality and inclusion. And the conversation is still going in terms of we are implementing this, but.
Craig Pollard [00:33:19]:
We are happy they're paying you consultancy fee to do this as well.
Irene Arellano [00:33:24]:
Yeah, exactly. Yes.
Craig Pollard [00:33:27]:
That's really exciting.
Irene Arellano [00:33:28]:
But it's not fast. I don't want to give the idea that everything is perfect. It's not fast. It's not huge amounts of money. When you talk about. I'm thinking about maybe my colleagues in Colombia, right? I know what they're going to face when trying this. It's like, oh, I can get a million dollar contract every month. No, it's not like that.
Irene Arellano [00:33:57]:
What we have encountered in this journey is so the expectation we have for this model is not to bring only resources to the organisation. Of course, the surplus we get from each contract is unrestricted fund for us. And that's great. Unrestricted funds is always challenging to raise for us. So that's great. But also it's a bigger impact that we want to create. That is, hey, we want to be the ally. I don't know if that's the correct word to use, but the partner for the companies in Peru start talking, getting interest, doing things better when reducing vulnerability or reducing poverty is about.
Craig Pollard [00:34:49]:
And within these guardrails, this envelope of the space, are there companies or sectors with which you can or can't work?
Irene Arellano [00:35:03]:
I think this might depend on the organisation. The due diligence process. We have a very strict due diligence, which is great. I think it's one of our assets. Again, we really consider.
Craig Pollard [00:35:19]:
And have you developed that within Peru?
Irene Arellano [00:35:22]:
Yeah, we have developed our due diligence process. Of course there are a lot of tools out there, but we have developed our own. So we definitely have sectors that we cannot work at all. But for the consulting unit, again, things needed to be different. Otherwise we couldn't just do anything. So for instance, we usually cannot work with the mining sector. However, we have two contracts right now with the best mining companies in the country and one of the best in the world to help them develop entire regions of the country. So we put on the table we shouldn't work with mining companies.
Irene Arellano [00:36:09]:
What are the reasons and why it is possible to work with these two specific companies and why it's important how it's aligned with our vision. Are they good companies? They are not harming the environment. It was a huge debate, but we opened the door so we can analyse case by case if does it worth to be working with specific sectors and specific companies that we think we believe that they can do things know. So that's where we are right now. It's challenging because you can imagine in Latin America the conflict around the mining.
Craig Pollard [00:36:54]:
Companies and land rights, climate, resources, all of that.
Irene Arellano [00:37:00]:
It's not an easy conversation. It's not black and white. We believe we need to work together, otherwise who is going to be supporting these sectors, right? I don't know. We believe there is opportunity for us to create impact by working with the sectors. But specific, carefully selecting the partners.
Craig Pollard [00:37:28]:
Yeah. And I guess there's an element of self selection as well, is that the companies that are seeking you out and who are responding, there's an element of maybe more advanced sort of sense of social responsibility, client responsibility, equity responsibility. Have you had to say no to companies and how did you do that?
Irene Arellano [00:37:53]:
A lot of times we had to say no a lot, unfortunately. And this is very sad because there are some companies, I guess in every country that we don't understand how they still running. Right. Because they're doing so much harm in some aspects and they're not really managing well their businesses. We have said not for us because we have a due diligence process. When we have an agreement about this, no, we reply to them and say we cannot do this because. And we give them a reason. Like we have limited our due diligence process is like this.
Irene Arellano [00:37:52]:
We cannot do this. However, we provide suggestions like, you want to do this project? There is public information about how to do this. We can meet and I mean just leave the door open in terms of not the door open at all, but not saying, hey, get out of my face. No, I cannot do this for you, but here is what I can do for you. Check my projects. These are studies. If you want to pursue it yourself some other way.
Craig Pollard [00:39:16]:
Yeah, it's difficult. It must be difficult. It is given the early stage that you're at in this process, yeah, but.
Irene Arellano [00:39:16]:
It's interesting that you mentioned that because, yes, it is an early stage of the services we're trying to provide, but if we are not clear within the teams why we are doing this and remind ourselves the purpose that is not only to bring some more unrestricted funds, but it's to boost our way towards our purpose as an organisation. I would say it is clear when you need to say no. It is kind of clear and it's not difficult. Just find a ways to be kind or to be respectful. But to be honest, it's not difficult. Sometimes even companies, we had to say no because they don't want to pay for the value of our technical support. And I would say no. This is the value.
Irene Arellano [00:40:25]:
No. But you are a nonprofit, you really don't need to. I am a nonprofit. Yes, we are. But I can assure you, you won't get this with the quality of what we are going to give you any cheaper somewhere else.
Craig Pollard [00:40:42]:
So for that, that takes a lot of confidence, all of that ability to say no because you have that clarity of purpose, that ability to say this is how much, this is the price of it, because we know the value of what we're offering. And I think so many organisations struggle with that. But it's so empowering when you do have clarity of purpose and have clarity of the value of the service, particularly in this space, because it sort of frees you up and it sort of makes it very clear the space where you can and want to operate and who you can work with, et cetera.
Irene Arellano [00:41:23]:
Yes.
Craig Pollard [00:41:24]:
And that's relevant for all corporate partnerships, to be honest, it's relevant for all funding partnerships.
Irene Arellano [00:41:30]:
I'm convinced that because of the time I've been working for nonprofit, specifically for care, and my experience in fundraising is that the challenge is to fine tune your value proposition, that it's aligned with your higher purpose, with your mission, with your vision and fine tune the audience. I mean, I don't believe that there is no audience for you. There must be like a market for the goal, the purpose that you want to achieve. And there is. It's just a matter of finding the way to find a bigger audience. If there is a partner, there is a group of people that they really don't value the work that you do, you shouldn't partner with them. It will bring you more problems than benefits.
Craig Pollard [00:42:34]:
And that's true. This is so important because this is true across all sort of high value fundraising. It's in the word, right, high value that has to be valued on that side as well.
Irene Arellano [00:42:43]:
Yes.
Craig Pollard [00:42:45]:
So often see an imbalance between how from the nonprofit side, this partnership is deeply valued with a company, but from the corporate side, it's often that it's not as valued, it's not seen as core and strategic and central. But it sounds like with your positioning, that you are deeply valued and therefore are able to charge for your services. Because that clarity of.
Irene Arellano [00:43:14]:
Yeah, that's why we are all the time trying to bring more value to our services too. Our services we offer is we can be your end to end partner to your journey of sustainability. We can be your end to end partner. So we are constantly trying to find ways of creating more value for our, in this case, clients, but ultimate partners in this journey. And that's fun too.
Craig Pollard [00:43:48]:
Yeah.
Craig Pollard [00:43:50]:
Thanks to Irene for sharing her experiences today. The ups and downs of building a social innovation programme from scratch there is so much to unpack in this episode. It feels like Irene has offered us a step by step guide for starting and sustaining a social innovation programme. But she's also given us clear guidance more generally for creating holistic, equitable partnerships between causes and companies. As she describes, this starts with redefining our idea of value, the value that our causes can offer to companies, and to reimagine the roles of our nonprofits and companies in delivering social impact. As I said, there's a lot in here. So from now on, I'm going to be sharing a summary of my reflections on every podcast conversation in a short blog that can be accessed via the website. Now this episode was just half of our conversation.
Craig Pollard [00:44:45]:
If you'd like to hear more from Irene about social innovation and impact investment, please do check out the next episode. New episodes of the Fundraising Radicals podcast land twice a month on the 1st and 15th. And if you'd like to listen to more episodes of the Fundraising Radicals podcast, read the blog posts or find out more about our work, please do visit our website at www.fundraisingradicals.com. Thanks for listening and for joining our exploration of the global funding ecosystem.
