Corporate partners in a time of disaster.

Despite staff working around the clock, the cause marketing team at the American Red Cross (ARC) found itself severely short-handed in potentially the most critical time for the relief organization.

"We still needed two to three times the staff to handle all the corporate offers that were coming in," said Casey Minix, interim director of corporate partnerships & cause marketing at ARC, of the days following Hurricane Katrina.

Speaking at the 2006 Cause Marketing Forum in New York City, Minix said she and her team learned several valuable lessons that summer, each of which underscored the value of corporate partners.

People Capacity. According to Minix, in addition to being short staffed in the cause marketing department, the ARC found itself without enough trained volunteers to send into the areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina. After depleting its resource of 250,000 trained volunteers, and after exhausting its relief corps reserves, the organization turned to ARC chapters for assistance.

The organization then turned to its corporate partners for volunteers, but "found that we needed more time to spend with our larger, more strategic partners," said Minix. "We now have in place a disaster training program for our corporate partners. In turn this has created a deeper relationship with our corporate partners, because their employees feel closer to our organization."

According to Minix, the ARC is now taking this effort online, "because it's always important to manage people capacity, and online will make it simpler."

System Capacity. "Our Web site nearly crashed due to the immense traffic," said Minix. The organization again tapped its corporate partners for help, who were able to ghost host the organization's site and keep it up and running.

The ARC also found it had exhausted its supply of debit cards, which the organization provided to hurricane victims. Placing a call to Western Union, a corporate partner, staff were able to create a robust system to get financial aide to the victims, said Minix. In preparation for this hurricane season, she added, the ARC has partnered with MasterCard and stocked more than 2 million assistance debit cards.

Communications Capacity. "We never wanted our corporate partners to read something in the media first," said Minix. To facilitate constant communication with its corporate partners, the organization created a ListScrv, visited its partners, and arranged several other portals, including scheduling periodic presidential calls. "It gave our partners access to that leadership, and for us it was a way to keep a pulse on them," said Minix.