Issue

At the 2016 Clinton Global Initiative in New York, the Gap Foundation announced its intention to reach one million women by 2020 with its factory-based work advancement program. At the time of the announcement, Gap Inc. had enrolled 35,000 women. The company program, which is run by the Gap Foundation, had established partnerships with international NGOs to help it implement the program, but it needed to convince other partners, such as multinational companies, to take up its program to meet the goal of enrolling one million women by 2020.

Gap Inc. found that its program brought real commercial benefits to its business, affirming that there is a compelling business case for the private sector to engage with the sustainable development agenda. To expand this program and develop more cross-sector partnerships across the company, Gap Inc. wanted to operationalize its partnership strategy.

Our work

We worked with the Gap Foundation and Global Sustainability teams to define the unique value proposition for Gap Inc.'s factory-based women's empowerment program and craft the first pitch to another very large, high-profile corporate entity. Collaboratively, we developed the strategy, wrote the copy and graphically designed the one-hour presentation. 

We also worked to develop and deliver a strategy workshop with the Gap Foundation and Global Sustainability leadership teams on the role multi-sectoral partnerships can play in achieving their sustainability, social and commercial goals.
 

Results

Gap Inc. was successful in its pitch and is now working with the other corporate entity to expand its factory-based women’s empowerment program. This initial pitch established a partnership model, which will be used in future outreach.

As a result of the strategy workshop, the Gap Foundation and Global Sustainability teams have a more thorough understanding of the state of play of corporate and multi-sectoral partnerships and the opportunities associated with those. They also gained consensus on their partnership strategy overall. Our final recommendations were presented to Gap Inc’s Foundation and Sustainability Boards.

services

  • Strategic Planning
  • Partnership Development

"Boster Group and Global Change Network expertly guided us through the process of partnership development from strategy to pitching a winning proposal. Their support has enriched our partnership strategy overall."

- Dan Henkle, Former President, Gap Foundation and SVP, Global Sustainability

In 2007, Gap Inc. launched P.A.C.E. to provide female garment worked with the life skills, education and technical training they need to advance at work and in life. So far, 14,000 women have participated in the P.A.C.E. program. Learn more at: http://gap.us/PACE.