I’m sure by now most – if not all – of you are aware of the wonderful collaboration between Emma Bridgewater, East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH), and the Duchess of Cambridge. Emma Bridgewater has designed a set of two lovely mugs with part of the proceeds from sales to benefit the EACH Nook Appeal, a fundraising campaign to raise £10 million to build an equip a new hospice in Norfolk, England. Kate attended the launch of the Nook Appeal in November 2014, and recently visited the Emma Bridgewater factory last month. In the spirit of this partnership, I thought we’d spend some time exploring the benefits of collaborative efforts and how vital it is to success.
Collaboration can be understood to mean to work together with others, often in intellectual, productive or creative endeavors. In the EACH example, the Duchess of Cambridge facilitated the partnership between Emma Bridgewater and EACH in order raise awareness of the fundraising campaign for EACH, bring attention to the creative enterprises of Emma Bridgewater and unite the two to create a powerful philanthropic tool that serves to benefit both. Collaboration can be essential in the world of fundraising, especially for non-profit groups, as these organizations tend to devote the majority of staff to the delivery of services rather than to the raising of funds (as they should). Thus, they need to collaborate with others in order to help raise funds for further service delivery.
Collaboration can further serve to broaden the reach of the groups that engage in it, as groups with different members can collaborate with each other to reach different target audiences. For instance, 100 Women in Hedge Funds (of which of Duke of Cambridge is Patron) collaborates with different charitable groups every year. In the past, 100 Women in Hedge Funds has collaborated with Child Bereavement UK (2011), Action on Addiction (2013), among many others. Additionally, they recently announced that their autumn 2015 gala in London celebrating education will benefit The Art Room, one of the Duchess of Cambridge’s patronages (I do hope that we will see Kate there!). These collaborations serve to unite very different groups: 100 Women in Hedge Funds is a wonderful group of women in the investment industry, while many of their collaborators are in the education, mentoring, and mental health fields. These collaborations have the incredible benefits of broadening their reach and impact.
A very important collaboration that cannot be overlooked is the collaboration between the Duke of Cambridge, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince Harry that has been solidified into the Royal Foundation. The Royal Foundation unites their three main interests, the armed forces, young people, and conservation, under one umbrella and directs time and resources to those challenges. The foundation enables and encourages collaboration between the disparate interests of the three royals, and is an exciting opportunity for partnerships that might not otherwise have been possible.
There is also room for collaboration with the Kate community – within the blogs, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. There is a lovely group of people who gather together, mainly on Facebook and Twitter (and perhaps on other places too of which I’m unaware?), during Kate’s appearances and discuss the events that are taking place. During these chats, the collaboration between everyone to share photos and tweets, to share citations and correctly identify sources is truly heartwarming. No one hoards information, hides facts, or appropriates credit that isn’t rightfully theirs. It’s a really fun scene, full of fashion AND appreciation for the cause we are learning about through the appearance. Do join us if you are awake/able to!
See you next month!
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