Our approach to corporate partnerships
Working with others helps to make our work more powerful. And working with corporate partners helps us to raise awareness of mental health and Mind's services.
With every new partnership, we put our mission and our values first. On this page, you can read about the principles we follow when we work with partners.
General principles
In general, we apply the following conditions to each of our corporate partnerships:
- Partnering with a company does not imply Mind’s approval of a product or policy. Nor does it mean that Mind will advocate on a company's behalf. Our name or logo can't be used in any way that contradicts this principle.
- If partners use Mind's logo or quote us in any communications, partners must submit the material to Mind in advance for approval.
- Partners and Mind will sign a formal agreement for every partnership. (For example, a commercial participator agreement.) If partners use Mind's logo, there will likely be a fee.
- Partners don't need to give an up-front payment or set a minimum staff fundraising target to support Mind. But we'll need a minimum income target – underwritten by the partner – for commercial partnerships.
- We list Mind's key corporate partners in our annual review.
Mind’s ethical policy
Mind won’t accept support that could compromise who we are and what we do.
Mind’s corporate partnerships team complete due diligence research. This makes sure any potential relationship is in line with our ethical policy and principles.
If there's a concern, the opportunity will go through our Ethical Appraisal Process. This process looks at the nature of the proposed relationship and what's in the best interest for Mind and our beneficiaries.
The appraisal process will also consider whether a potential partner:
- Is known to discriminate against people with mental health problems
- Has a poor record on equality and racism
- Or generally has a poor ethical record
Situations where there's legitimate concern include, but aren't limited to, companies that are:
- Receiving the majority of their income from pharmaceutical companies
- Promoting gambling or risky behaviour around money
- Heavily promoting flexi payment schemes
- Debt management companies
- Welfare-to-work providers
- Producing tobacco or nicotine products
- Part of the alcohol industry
- Manufacturing weapons
- Political organisations
- Private healthcare companies
- Weight loss or dieting companies
- Short-term loan providers or pay day lenders
Being on the above list doesn’t necessarily mean your company can’t work with Mind. But there'll be restrictions on what we can do together.
We're committed to keeping our independent stance in relation to the use of medication. This means we can keep providing a voice for people with experience of mental health problems. This means Mind won't accept donations or fundraising from companies who manufacture pharmaceuticals. This policy also applies to all local Minds, as part of their affiliation agreement.
Frequently asked questions
There are lots of ways we work with our partners. At a minimum we will:
- Support you to develop a fundraising plan
- Provide materials, fundraising and awareness raising ideas and updates about Mind
- Give information on ways to support your staff
- Share information about the difference your support could make to Mind.
To find out more about how we can support you please get in touch.
We aim to deliver the best partnerships for Mind and our corporate partners. In our experience, having time to plan and set up the partnership is one of the most important aspects of this. Once you decide to partner with Mind, we will:
- Work with you to set a target
- Agree our ways of working
- Introduce you to your contact in the Mind team
This can take between 4 and 8 weeks, depending on the complexity of the partnership and our staff capacity at that time.
Please note that brand partnerships can take longer.
Many of Mind’s services are accessed by people all over the UK and beyond. But we're registered as a charity in England and Wales only.
Sometimes, we'll work with partners who have staff or locations in Scotland or Northern Ireland. In this case, sometimes staff in these countries can fundraise for our sister charities SAMH and Inspire.
If your company’s head office is in Scotland or Northern Ireland, we recommend contacting our sister charities.
The definition of pharmaceutical manufacturers does not extend to retailers like chemists, who mainly manufacture own-brand over the counter medication, unless they're significant manufacturers of pharmaceuticals associated with the treatment of mental health problems.
Companies who make alternative remedies, like St John's Wort or vitamins, are also excluded from this policy.
We greatly appreciate support from people working for pharmaceutical companies, including donations or taking part in events for Mind. However, we won't accept funds from their employer, or donations from matched fundraising initiatives.
Staff at Mind and local Minds won't accept sponsorship or donations from pharmaceutical companies for their own events. Staff may go to conferences, seminars or events run by other organisations that are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. But only if they don’t directly benefit financially from going. This means staff can't accept fees and expenses to go to these events.
Mind staff won't normally speak at events sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. However, Mind’s CEO will review specific requests and may approve some speaker requests.
At Mind we want our mental health training and support to be available to and benefit everyone, regardless of their employer or industry. Mind’s mental health training, consultancy and Workplace Wellbeing Index is available to all companies, including those manufacturing pharmaceuticals.
Absolutely! We encourage all our partners to use Mind’s services to support the wellbeing of their staff. Rolling out wellbeing initiatives in the workplace is a great way to complement your partnership activity with Mind, helping to raise more awareness and ensuring your staff feel able to seek support.
If you work with our partnerships team and workplace wellbeing team, you’ll have a dedicated contact in each team. All services have a fee, even for current partners. Your workplace wellbeing contact will be able to quote you prices.
