Ask most charities what “bad social value” looks like, and you’ll get the same answer: the helicopter company.
That’s the company that drops in for a day, paints a fence, takes a photo, uploads it to the portal, and flies off again. Everyone gets their evidence. No one gets any lasting benefit.
As one charity told me, “We don’t need people to visit for a day, we need partners who’ll still be here next year.”
That’s the difference between transactional and transformational social value. One meets a metric. The other meets a need.
Why partnerships fail
Most social value partnerships fail before they start. Not because anyone wants them to, but because they’re built backwards.
A company wins a contract, realises it needs to deliver social value, and then scrambles to find a local charity that fits the criteria. The charity, already at capacity, says yes because it doesn’t want to turn down potential funding, and the result is chaos.
There’s no time or budget for planning, no clarity on objectives, and no understanding of what either side actually wants.
As I said in my talk to the Institute for Social Value forum, “Social value isn’t something you bolt on at the end. It’s something you design from the start.”
What good partnership looks like
Good social value is built on three things: alignment, structure, and respect.
- Alignment: Both sides understand the purpose of the project. The company’s commitments match the charity’s goals. No one’s forced to do work that doesn’t fit.
- Structure: The partnership has a clear process: who’s responsible, what’s being measured, how reporting works, and when delivery happens. No surprises.
- Respect: Each side sees the other as an equal partner. The business brings resources and skills; the charity brings expertise, trust, and local knowledge.
When these things line up, social value stops being an inconvenience and starts being collaboration.
Case in point
One of the charities I’ve worked with supports adults with autism and Down syndrome. When they first came to us, they were struggling to attract consistent funding. They had strong programmes in employability, life skills and volunteering but nothing was packaged in a way that fit social value frameworks.
We worked with them to design three modular, contract-ready offers that could be “plugged in” to corporate social value needs: employability, supported work experience, and confidence building. Each one had pricing, safeguarding, metrics, and clear start/stop points.
The result? They became a trusted partner for local contractors. Businesses could deliver meaningful social value without draining the charity’s capacity, and the charity gained reliable, sustainable support.
No helicopters. Just partnership.
Councils’ role in connection
Councils can play a vital role here. Instead of leaving businesses and charities to find each other after contracts are signed, they can act as conveners, hosting pre-tender matchmaking events, maintaining lists of trusted local partners, or even commissioning “social value-ready” projects in advance.
That way, everyone starts to align. The council knows what outcomes it wants. The charity knows what it can deliver. The business knows where to invest.
This isn’t about adding more processes. It’s about adding more connections.
The long game
Social value isn’t measured in one-day events or annual reports. It’s measured in trust, continuity, and capacity.
When a company and a charity work together year after year, the community starts to feel it. People see real change. Skills grow. Opportunities multiply.
That’s what good social value looks like. Not a helicopter, but a bridge: something that lasts, something that connects.
In Part 5 of this series, we’ll look at the future and how we can make social value strategy itself fundable, and why the next phase of progress depends on investing in the people who design the change, not just those who deliver it.