Npower explores switching funds to powerful community-led initiatives
Howard Lake | 4 December 2012 | Blogs
UK gas and electricity supplier Npower is exploring investing £7m saved from ending its deal with the Football League into mutually beneficial community-led initiatives. The move, reported in Marketing, comes as the company seeks to improve its brand perception in an increasingly competitive sector seeking redemption from a period of poor complaints handling, devious door-step selling tactics and overcharging customers that resulted in regulator Ofgem introducing sweeping reforms.
This move signals a significant endorsement of the power of corporate-community partnerships, coming at a time when the energy sector needs to take both feet off the corporate naughty step and look at new ways to help regain trust amongst customers. It should also provide a valuable case-study for the toolkit of corporate fundraisers focussed on trying to tap into some of the corporate sector's most lucrative budgets such as sports sponsorship and above-the-line advertising.
Following this news, I imagine Npower will be inundated with hundreds of cold calls and thousands of letters of introduction from causes looking to benefit from its new focus. However, woe betide any fundraisers turning up at its HQ, unannounced, and asking the company to consider switching its priorities there and then. Mind you….
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http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1162650/Npower-switches-marketing-focus-charity-ties/
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-thompson/0/898/a5
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.