Case Studies

Featuring some concrete and inspiring examples of collaborations between businesses and non-profits.

Twilio helping non-profit organisations to create impact at scale, through communications

Twilio, a cloud communication company, offers customised and discounted services to non-profit organisations through its social impact division, Twilio.org, enabling scale outreach and improved services in healthcare, education, and crisis response.

Context: It started with observing usage patterns. Twilio identified that non-profits were leveraging its communication tools for various purposes, such as crisis hotlines, donor engagement, and community outreach. This insight prompted Twilio to formalize its support through Twilio.org, its social impact division.

Collaboration: Twilio worked closely with non-profits to design solutions that addressed their unique challenges, with customized integrations and managed services. This approach reduces technical complexity and enables organizations to focus on their missions. Twilio collaborated with non-profits to integrate advanced tools like SMS, WhatsApp, chatbots, and AI-powered systems into their operations. These tools improve efficiency in areas such as crisis response, donor management, and service delivery, enabling positive impact at scale.

For example, City Harvest, an organisation which collects surplus food from restaurants, bakeries, and cafes, used Twilio’s tools to allow people to schedule food pantry pickups via text messages, instead of needing to download an app - bridging the digital divide for underserved communities.

Impact: The partnership developed scalable solutions tailored to specific non-profit needs for over 20,000 organizations, who served 546 million people using Twilio in 2023.

For example, for City Harvest, the SMS system replaced the need for long lines outside pantries, saving over 500,000 hours of waiting time for clients. The SMS experience increased participation in food pantry programs by 4X compared to the previous mobile app experience.

For Twilio, while the company does not disclose what percentage of this comes from non-profits, over 20,000 social impact organizations used Twilio products in 2023, suggesting a meaningful contribution. They also offer financial support through grants and investments via their Impact Fund. It offered $71M to 80+ organizations in 2023, set to impact 103M people over the grant period.

When impact initiatives align with core competencies, they become more scalable and sustainable in the long term; they also signal authenticity. Identifying areas for collaboration with non-profits that align with the core business can create opportunities from serving new markets, improving existing services or attracting talent.

L'Occitane and women's unions in Burkina Faso

The skin care brand L’OCCITANE has a joint development partnership since the 1980's with women's unions in Burkina Faso.

Context: In the 1980's, Olivier Baussan, founder of L’OCCITANE, learned about the benefits of shea butter in Burkina Faso. Since then, L’OCCITANE has been sourcing shea butter – one of its most iconic ingredients and called "women's gold" by the locals – from women producers in Burkina Faso. And after seeing the challenging living and working conditions of Burkinabe women, he became committed to the women’s economic growth.

Collaboration: By purchasing fair-trade certified shea butter directly from these women, the L’OCCITANE helps them to build sustainable livelihoods and to pass on their skills from generation to generation. In 2018, L’OCCITANE launched RESIST (Resilience, Ecology, Strengthening, Independence, Structure, Training), a $2 million project that aims to protect shea resources for 10,000 Burkinabe women producers and preserve biodiversity. The three-year programme helps to secure organic nut access by developing shea parklands and training women producers in the preservation of the shea tree. It also seeks to modernise shea processing, strengthen alternative fuel wood sources by valorising wood waste, and improve the working conditions for the women involved in the shea value chain. Overall, the programme ensures the continuity of traditional knowledge and skills and a sustainable future for the shea industry while making it more attractive for younger generations. Moreover, L'OCCITANE donates 3% of the price of the shea butter to a community development fund, which helps to finance social and technical development initiatives.

Impact: L’OCCITANE’s business model has indirectly helped more than 200,000 people through the benefits to household members and jobs created: 75% of the women involved enrol all (or most) of their children in school and 84% of them are able to contribute to their family expenses. And, thanks to this partnership, the shea butter supply chain of L’OCCITANE has been 100% Fair Trade since 2009. The work of the L’OCCITANE Foundation, with Empowering Women as one of its 3 commitments, is closely related to the brand positioning of Occitane: "The Foundation has sprung from L'Occitane's soul, simply bringing out what is on the inside"- Olivier Baussan