National Forum

Fostering partnerships between business, government and the community, and promoting philanthropy in conservation.

Mr Tony Howarth

The Prime Ministers Community Business Partnership had its origin back in 1998 when the PM 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 PM 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 business and community are interlinked in that 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 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 support and resources. And for business loss of brand value and community support.

I will come to this in a few minutes but let me wrap up my comments on the Community Business Partnership by describing the three key strategies of the partnership.

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. We can arrange seminars and we are putting together a number of alliances with organisations.

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 incentives for donations of property made under the cultural gifts program. This now allows 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.

Importantly also we now have an 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.

Let me now turn to some real Partnership case studies:

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, others environment, 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. 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 practice.

We also know today 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. That is what these initiatives provide 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 the 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.

Let me give you some examples of Community Business Partnerships.

Indulge me by letting me use my organisation Challenge Bank/Westpac as a starter:

We take the issues of Community very seriously.Trust, Brand and Social responsibility are vital to our success. We have a number of Community Partnerships, a large portion of which are designed to support our staff in their communities. I will briefly mention 3 of these:

The first is volunteering. Westpac encourages all of it's 30,000 staff to be involved in volunteering and provide a days paid leave for that activity. Not all staff take advantage. However if we can increase the participation rate the potential contribution is enormous.

The second is Operation Backyard. Through this programme we support environmental projects in the community. Since it's launch we have assisted 126 projects around Australia $580k. Here in WA we have assisted with projects as diverse as assisting a new school at Ellenbrook plant trees for shade for the kids to supporting our staff at Mukinbudin in a greening program for the entrance to town.

And finally, our Matching Gifts Programme. In December 1998 we launched a matching gifts programme whereby the Bank agreed to match dollar for dollar donations our staff make to charities. Since that time the staff have given approx $1.25million which we have matched with an equal amount.

I use these examples to demonstrate the value business can bring to Community Partnerships not just through their cheque book but by their ability to engage their whole resource base including people.

I spoke earlier of the PM's Business Community Awards.

Here are two local examples which were recognised in those awards.

The first is ALCOA Australia who was a National finalist in the 1999 awards.

This project "The ALCOA Land Care Project" was a partnership between ALCOA and LandCare Australia. It's goal was to raise the awareness of the problems associated with land degradation. Demonstrate the results of sustainable farm practices and co-ordinate the efforts and expertise of land holders, government agencies, community groups and industry.

At the time of the awards, this Partnership had facilitated the establishment of more that 700 ALCOA LandCare sites. Thousands of hectares of degraded land had been treated and at least 9 millions trees planted.

Through this Partnership ALCOA felt it achieved recognition through LandCares publicity and promotion

The second example was last years State winner in the 20 to 199 employee category. Westlime a quicklime producer, created a partnership with the local Dongara District High School.

The project revolved around the environmental rehabilitation of mine sites.

It was undertaken in collaboration with the schools teaching staff and gave practical experience to the pupils in identifying native plants, development of a greenhouse at the school, propagation of seeds and planting at the rehabilitated mine site; and monitoring of success.

The project had tangible benefited for both organisations and is an example of a real Win Win.

My last example is one that was only announced on March 9. It sees BHP and Conservation Volunteers Australia teaming up in the largest ever Partnership to revive wetlands.

BHP has committed to provide $1.5 million in funding and in-kind support to implement and evaluate the programme. The funding is directly supporting the "Revive the Wetlands" program and will enable a monitoring system to be designed and tested. Employment and training of 7 new wetlands environmental officers and documentation of each individual Wetlands project.

As this is a forum on taking care of the bush, I have purposely used a number of land care 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 Governments 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 businesses because at the end of the day are a collection of people, play an important role in this objective.

Finally, let me close with a quote from the PM 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".