A Genuine Partnership

Partnering with PEAS will bring lasting benefits to your company whilst helping to get more children into secondary school in Africa.

Why partner with PEAS?

In Africa, there is a desperate need to improve education. In Uganda for example, only one in four children has access to secondary school. Education is a key foundation for development - its positive impacts include: the creation of a literate and pro-active workforce for the economy; progress on human rights issues like child sacrifice and homophobia; the strengthening of democracy and accountability; and ultimately the reduction of poverty. PEAS' ambition is to increase the availability and standard of schooling in Africa, and to give every child the education they deserve.

But we develop partnerships, and partnerships work both ways. Working with PEAS brings our partners more than just a sense of social responsibility:

• Strengthen your brand - your association with a rapidly growing, innovative, sustainable, dynamic and ambitious social enterprise charity will demonstrate your social awareness to your staff, customers and your wider audience.
• Reinforce HR – motivate your employees, improve teamwork, improve morale, retain the best staff, attract the best candidates. In short, make people feel happier to work for you.
• More 'bang for your buck' – PEAS' innovative SmartAid model prioritises sustainability and transparency, so you can be sure that you will be making a difference long after your initial contribution. This gives you a huge social return on your investment.
• Proven 'track record' – not only have we successfully built and run a network of schools in Africa, we have also successfully managed a variety of corporate partnerships. Combining development with business means that we can address the injustice of unequal access to education whilst also meeting your business objectives.

What do partnerships with PEAS look like?

They each look different. We recognise that your charitable activities or wider Corporate Social Responsibility strategy is unique, because we know that your company, its objectives and its values are unique. This is why PEAS works closely with each of its partners to develop individual programmes, projects or events that fit with each organisation.

We use a host of innovative ideas to maximise the mutual benefits of our relationships with corporate partners:

• Corporate donations: a simple way to help us build more schools, provide equipment or set up self-sustaining, income-generating activities. For example, £250 will create a permanent place in a PEAS school, £1,200 will fill a new school library with books, and £11,500 will build two new classrooms. You could even build your own school, like the Costa Foundation did.
• Support PEAS in-country staff: as much as possible we recruit local teachers and other professionals in the fields of education, finance, HR, admin and construction to build and run our schools. You might be an accounting firm, so why not support one of our auditors, as you will understand that financial accuracy, efficiency and transparency which are vital to our operations? Likewise, as a recruitment consultancy you might like to be associated with one of our HR staff, as you know the importance of hiring the right people for the right positions. See if you identify with any of our African team.
• Fundraising events: we have a calendar of events you can get involved with, or we can help you create your own. From film screenings, cake bakes, sports and activity days, to pub-quizzes, sponsored physical challenges, auctions, celebrity evenings and book markets. There are endless possibilities for interesting, fun and engaging events that bring employees together, increase your profile, demonstrate your values to your customers and make a massive difference to our beneficiaries. Our event management experience includes assembling Jeremy Paxman, Louis Theroux, Deborah Meadon, Bruce Dickinson and others at An Education, and gathering children from over 40 schools around the country in crossing Bridges to Africa.
• Gifts in kind/pro bono: We are always looking for professional volunteers with a whole range of expertise including video editing, marketing, communications, public relations, strategic advice, human resources, administration, research, legal, accounting and other areas. Staff from corporate partners who have volunteered with PEAS include Oliver Wyman's Jenny Fitzgerald, who joined us as a strategy consultant for four months (including working in-country with our Uganda team) and MHP Communications employee Deborah Burgess, who spent three weeks working with us on our PR strategy.
• Cause-related marketing: Do you sell frozen peas? Do you have offices in or products from Africa? Are you looking to expand into African markets? Do you specialise in products for children? Do you provide training or education services? If so you can use your association with PEAS to intrigue your customers, demonstrate your social awareness and ultimately boost your sales. Put our logo on your packaging, on your e-mails, in your annual report, at your checkouts - create a buzz that will benefit both your business and the education of thousands of the poorest children in the world.
• Charity of the Year: your support through one of these programmes will make a tangible difference to PEAS, and at the end of the relationship you will be able to present concrete results that will make you proud. Although we are a small and flexible organisation, we have the experience, expertise, imagination and resources to effectively manage this kind of partnership and help you focus, engage and energise your employees. 

Whatever the form our partnership might take, PEAS will provide a dedicated relationship manager to help you get the most out of working with us.

We will issue regular feedback and progress updates about projects on the ground, and keep your objectives at the forefront of our minds.

Below is a selection of companies that currently work with us to help widen access to secondary education in Africa. To discuss how you too could partner with PEAS and join this list, please don't hesitate to e-mail Priya Mishra (or call 0203 117 2497).