Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) Win Awards for Social Impact

It’s never crossed my mind that the federal government of the United States would seek partnerships with small artists. But, that’s exactly what they’ve done. In a recent interview with Andrew O’Brien, the Special Representative for Global Partnerships in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnerships, and Mike Samson, Co-Founder of crowdSPRING, I learned how and why this partnership matters.

The Global Partnerships office calls them P3s, as in public-private partnerships. The office began a P3 Impact Award for corporations who are making social impact through on-the-ground partnerships. It was an idea that was birthed from the Concordia Summit as a way to recognize high impact work across sectors. The winner of the recent P3 award was The Hershey Company’s Cocoalink program. In partnership with the Ghana Cocoa Research Institute and the Ghana Cocoa Board, Hershey initiated CocoaLink, a unique program that uses low-cost, mobile phone technology to carry social and agricultural information—based on fair trade principles and techniques—to rural cocoa farmers. They were honored with the P3 award for the scalability of their work and the growth potential of their impact.

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Julie is passionate about telling the story of where business meets good. She is the Founder of B Storytelling, a content development company specifically designed to help popularize the good happening through business. They do this by helping Benefit Corporations and other social enterprises identify, build and leverage their brands. Julie has an MBA in Managing for Sustainability from Marlboro Graduate School. She lives in West Palm Beach, Florida with her husband, Thomas.