Inside the Partnership-Centered Philanthropy Model That’s Raising the Bar for Corporate Giving

When Ruling Our eXperiences (ROX) received its first $10,000 gift from Bread Financial a decade ago, it marked the beginning of a relationship that would grow into a $1.7 million, multiyear commitment — and a new model for corporate-nonprofit partnerships.

In a bbcon 2025 session, “Building Holistic Corporate and Nonprofit Partnerships That Drive Maximum Impact,” Lisa Hinkelman, Ph.D., founder and CEO at Ruling Our eXperiences, and Vanessa Yahner, senior manager of sustainability and community relations at Bread Financial, shared how their organizations moved from a transactional relationship to what they call “partnership-centered philanthropy.”

But for Ruling Our eXperiences — which equips girls in fifth through 12th grades with leadership and confidence-building skills through its 20-week in-school program — the evolution goes beyond the traditional models nonprofit professionals have learned. The nonprofit has established trust-based philanthropy as the baseline, and has worked with Bread Financial to develop a more integrated, five-driver framework: trust, integration, amplification, sponsorship and ecosystem development.

“Fortunately for us, we've been able to navigate and cultivate different kinds of relationships where the partners do actually care about our mission, not just their logo being at an event or on a big screen somewhere,” Hinkelman said at the event in Philadelphia on Monday.

Here’s how each step works for nonprofits in partnership-centered philanthropy.

Build Trust

Traditional corporate social responsibility often focuses on one-time gifts or event sponsorships — and can be accompanied with lengthy applications, follow-up paperwork and strings attached. But the multiyear unrestricted funding has been transformative for Ruling Our eXperiences.

“If I have to plan from year to year how many people I can hire, what I can get out of them in this amount [of money] a year because I don't know if that money is coming next year, it makes me work to the money, as opposed to the project or the strategy,” Hinkelman said. “And that's the backwards way to think about impact.”

With trust established, Hinkelman shared that conversations with corporate partners move from a focus on numbers served to how the people served are different because of their time with the organization.

“And that adds a qualitatively different kind of dimension to our ability to have conversations about data and about impact,” she said.

Deepen Integration With Partners

At Bread Financial, the partnership with Ruling Our eXperiences extends far beyond the grants department. One of the company’s C-suite leaders sits on Ruling Our eXperiences’ board, and employees engage in volunteer and giving campaigns.

In a meeting with retail partner Maurice’s, Bread Financial employees authentically mentioned their nonprofit partnership, leading to a donation of a discontinued girls’ clothing line that totaled more than 175,000 pieces of clothing. The problem was Ruling Our eXperiences’ office couldn’t accommodate the three semi-loads of clothes.

So, Bread Financial handled the logistics, sorting and packing, while the nonprofit informed its clients of the opportunity.

“That would have never happened if we weren't openly talking to our associates about things we care about, partners we're investing in, getting them involved in these relationships, because they're the ones who made it happen,” Yahner said.

Amplify Impact and Storytelling

The partnership also allows them to team up on the national “Girls’ Index” research and the new “50 States, 50 Stories” campaign. Though the nonprofit only has a small communications team, the organization saves money by leaning on Bread Financial’s communications staff or outside agencies for extra support.

“That kind of reciprocal work elevates the professionalism of what we're able to put out into the world, while it isn't a heavy lift — and in some cases, is such joy to the communications folks because they get to get their eyes on something different,” Hinkelman said.

“They’re not writing finance articles,” Yahner added. 

Rethink Sponsorship and Exposure

For many nonprofits, corporate sponsorship still means logo placement on banners, decals, programs and swag. But that doesn’t have to be the case. For instance, Bread Financial is the title sponsor of the nonprofit’s events and was featured on miniature credit cards that represent donation pledges at a recent gala. These creative promotions help to strengthen the partnership.

On the other hand, a recent cause marketing campaign pushed Ruling Our eXperiences’ story to millions of Bread Financial cardholders, pledging donations when customers met certain spending milestones.

“It was able to really have great success, drive traffic to ROX’s website, introduce ROX to a whole new audience who otherwise wouldn't know them and raise the money while we were doing it,” Yahner said.

“We have the goods,” Hinkelman added of the nonprofit’s programming and evidence-based research. “We don’t have the reach yet. And so this engagement, this partnership, gives us a platform, gives us exposure in ways that otherwise we might not have the chance to have.”

The partnership also led Hinkelman to speak at a Bread Financial business meeting held at the U.S. Open alongside tennis legends Lindsay Davenport and Stan Smith, who has seven granddaughters and invited Hinkelman to reconnect with him the next time she’s in South Carolina.

“I wouldn’t have been invited to that room under any other circumstances,” Hinkelman said. “... Getting invited to those rooms is really special. It's very meaningful, and it elevates our work in such meaningful ways.”

Cultivate an Ecosystem of Impact

Though the corporation aims to be neutral and only promote causes during giving campaigns, Yahner said, Bread Financial employees increased their donations to Ruling Our eXperiences by 352% from 2024 to 2025.

“A lot of those associates, who may not have a charity they care about all the time, have, over the course of time, connected with ROX,” she said. “They have a girl they care about. They have a daughter who's in a program — whatever that is, they make the connection. And that, to me, is like the dream outcome of these partnerships that then you can see the ripple effect.”

Those ripple effects of the partnership are visible far beyond Columbus, Ohio, where both organizations are based.

Through Bread Financial’s introductions and platform, Ruling Our eXperiences has expanded from 24 to 49 states in just three years. Other funders have joined in, and local collaborations — like a “Girls in Hockey Day” activation with the city’s NHL team — now embed Ruling Our eXperiences’ programming into community events.

“The impact is not just dollars,” Hinkelman said. “It's not just the number of things. It's in the girls whose lives we're transforming. It's in the women that we are cultivating and creating. And as you all know, creating generations of confident leaders does not happen by accident.”