State Heritage Convention

Mr Tony Howarth
Chief Executive Officer, Challenge Bank
"Community business partnerships"

The Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership had its origin back in 1998 when the Prime Minister and the Minister for Family and Community Services brought corporate and community sector leaders together in Parliament House in Canberra.

The purpose of that meeting was to explore how partnerships between business and not-for-profit organisations could be encouraged.

From this round table meeting, working groups were formed to progress and promote the concept of collaboration between business and the community in Australia.

Key outcomes of the working groups were recommendations for tax changes to facilitate philanthropy, the establishment of the Prime Ministers Awards for Excellence in partnerships and a one-off facilitating Best Practice Partnerships Grants Program.

In August 1999 the concept was taken to a higher level when the Prime Minister announced the establishment of the Community Business Partnership to advise him and to work on ways to accelerate community outcomes. Partnership members were drawn from both sectors and have extensive expertise in both business and not for profit sectors.

The name Business Community Partnership is deliberate in that it recognises that the business and community sectors are interlinked. Those who work within the community sector are conducting business and those who operate in the corporate sector (large or small) are part of the community. And in my view those who don't recognise the importance of this, do so at their own peril.

That peril being for the community sector a lack of extremely valuable creativity, support and resources. And for business loss of brand value and community support.

The Partnership board meets with the Prime Minister and the Minister for Family and Community Services four times a year. Its day to day operations are administered by a small executive team of five people based in Sydney.

The partnership has three key strategies:-

The first is advocacy. We want to spread the word. There are some great examples of partnerships in action. We can work with both business and community organisations to show how it can be done. What is working and why and demonstrate the rewards to be gained. And I intend to share some of those examples with you shortly.

Secondly facilitation. We have extensive information and research available. There is an extensive program of seminars and conferences. We have also formed a number of alliances with organisations including Chambers of Commerce, BCA and ACOSS.

And finally, there is recognition. This is achieved by promoting coverage of developments in corporate social responsibility, and by activities such as the Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence in Community Business Partnerships.

In addition, the Partnership also examines and makes recommendations on tax measures and policy development. We are pragmatic enough to know that the tax system plays a significant role in philanthropy and we have already had some success.

One I will mention is the greater incentive for donations of property made under the cultural gifts program. This now allows capital gains tax exemptions with deductions for all gifts accepted under the program to be apportioned over a period of up to five years.

More particularly for this audience this five-year apportionment also flows on to gifts of property to environmental groups and heritage bodies.

In addition we now have an independent inquiry under way into the definitional issues relating to charities, churches and not for profit organisations. As many of you are aware we are still working under a definition which is unchanged since around the 16th century.

Last year the partnership produced a report on "Business Cases" of community business involvement of 115 of Australia's top companies.

That report showed that companies are increasingly looking at community investment as a key contributor to long-term commercial viability. They see involvement not as a means of improving short-term business competitiveness but as a way to maintain trust, support and legitimacy with community, government and employees.

There are many drivers behind this and they will differ with each business. Some are focussed on staff motivation, loyalty and retention; others environment; and still others on the community more generally.

In 2001, as we all know, brand recognition and brand reputation is everything and corporate community involvement is recognised as facilitating corporate image enhancement. In fact, 71% of companies surveyed in an American research project identified corporate image a being the prime reason for their community investment. In other words partnerships are good business sense.

I have put up a slide giving 10 good reasons why business should get involved. I'll leave you to read through this.

What we do however know today is that companies pollute at their peril. Many companies now spend millions of dollars not only to be environmentally responsible but to be seen to be socially responsible. They use recycled paper in annual report and incorporate environmental logos on their communications.

Today we see campaigns for example to discourage smoking and to promote recycling of waste materials. We take it for granted today that all of these make good sense. But they are also an example of carefully planned campaigns that use what I would describe as social marketing fundamentals. What these initiatives provide is a win, win for both the community and business.

I believe that the future of partnerships is about finding these win win situations. And it does take a lot more work. It requires business and community sectors to work together in a much more open and informed way with mutual respect for each other's requirements. And once this is done you will be surprised by what can be achieved.

Now let me give you some examples of community business partnerships in the area of heritage. In the main these examples have been drawn from applications received through the prime ministers awards for excellence in community business partnerships.

Save Our Century Fund

"Save Our Century Fund" is a partnership between the Western Australian State Library custodians, West Australian newspapers and Channel 9 Perth. This partnership is aiming to raise funds to collect and preserve Western Australia's 20th century documentation collections held by the Library and Information Service of WA.

It is a three year partnership with WA newspapers contributing the full-time services of a leading journalist. This journalist has written feature articles as well as regular small articles in every Monday issue of the west Australian. In addition, the paper has also provided full page advertisements for the fund and published a calendar and book entitled "Western Australia in the Twentieth Century" with the proceeds of sales assisting the fund.

Channel 9 assist by providing free advertisements and promotion to encourage private support. They have also produced a promotional video for the fund and some documentary programs. Peter Holland, one of Perth's top television newsreaders has also been assigned to work on the commercials and to meet with the custodians of the fund to assist in project developments.

Staff from all organisations have been closely involved in this partnership, resulting in the establishment of strong relationships between organisations. The success of the partnership can be measured in the high public and corporate response to the program through donations and, importantly, the donation of some very significant heritage records.

More information can be found on their website
Http://www.liswa.wa.gov.au/socf/

S. H. Ervin Heritage Exhibition

Another example is the partnership between Commonwealth Bank and the National Trust of NSW. This partnership has been in existence for several years, starting as a philanthropic relationship and developing into what it has become a long term partnership assuring funding for annual exhibitions and a range of contributions promoting conservation heritage in NSW.

The Bank funds an annual major exhibition in the Trust's S. H. Ervin Gallery and greatly values the public education programs associated with the exhibitions. These not only foster a better appreciation of Australia's artistic heritage but also help to publicise the role of the National Trust itself.

The bank contributes to the work of the National Trust and the preservation of Australia's heritage in a number of other ways. At considerable cost, the Commonwealth Bank undertook the preservation of its two landmark heritage buildings fronting Martin Place to the highest in heritage restoration standards. The Bank has opened up usually restricted areas of these buildings for tours by National Trust members.

In addition, the Bank has loaned works of art from its collection to enable the public to see works usually not exhibited outside of the Bank's premisesBThe Bank also supports the Trust through participation in its Corporate Breakfast Series. The Bank believes that its rich history closely tied to the development of modern Australia make it a natural partner for the National Trust and its work of promoting the preservation and appreciation of what is unique and the best in Australia's heritage.

Australia - Greece War Memorial

The partnership between Parthenon Marble (a medium sized organisation) and the Australian Hellenic Memorial Foundation in Melbourne has been established to build a memorial in Birdwood Avenue in memory of those Australian and Hellenic men and women who fought and died and in honour of those who served in Greece during the Second World War. The partners in this program consider that the Memorial will educate much of the public about the long lasting and ongoing ties between Australia and Greece.

Parthenon Marble, in recognition of the importance of acknowledging this significant part of our Australian heritage, has contributed $130,000 in cash and in kind support for the Memorial, including labour and materials. Both partners believe that the construction of this memorial will lead to an improved reputation for both organisations, advertising and publicity through mainstream and ethnic media and an increase in staff morale due to the collaboration.

Endangered Houses Endowment

The Historic Houses Trust of NSW is a statutory body established to conserve and manage places of cultural significance in NSW. Normally the Historic Housing Trust acquires property and manages them as museums.

This partnership with a group of major local property developers allows them to acquire houses that are no less significant but whose future is not dependent on becoming a museum. An amount of $3 million has been donated by the developers to the Trust's Millennium Fund to create an "Endangered Houses Endowment".

The fund will effectively turn the Trust into a property developer, albeit one that does not make money out of buying, fixing and selling property.

This heritage model was trialed when the Trust acquired Walter Burley Griffin House at Castlecraig some eight years ago. The Trust was concerned that in private hands the house, which came onto the market after some 46 years, would either be demolished or drastically altered. It meticulously restored the house, put in a new kitchen and bathroom, subdivided the block and built a contemporary residence. Conservation covenants were then placed on the house to bind future owners.

The property developers saw this project as putting something back into the community aligned to their area of interest.

As this is the State Heritage Convention I have purposely used a number of heritage projects in describing business community partnerships in action. My belief is that we are still just scratching the surface in what can be achieved.

But I do make a couple of cautionary comments.

Firstly, demand for partnerships will continue to outstrip supply. The successful projects will be those where both parties have taken the time to understand each other, respect each others needs and identify win win opportunities. Call it social marketing.

Secondly, partnerships are not about moving the Government's social responsibilities to industry. It is not about individual people or corporations giving more. There are already wonderful examples of partnerships. It is about getting more people engaged and contributing. And business, because at the end of the day is just a collection of people, plays an important role in this objective.

Finally, let me close with a quote from the Prime Minister on the Community Business Partnership initiative when he said "working in partnerships not only has the potential to enrich people's lives but also can deliver tangible results for all Australians. Community business partnerships are a driver to accomplish better outcomes, than any group acting alone could achieve".