The Red Cross, Uber, and the Danger of Corporate/Nonprofit Partnerships

A partnership between Uber and the Red Cross in New Zealand was announced this week. A similar partnership between Uber and the American Red Cross earlier in the month went almost unnoticed. How come?

The clue may be in the recent abandoning of a plan for Uber to partner with UN Women, as reported in the NPQ Newswire. UN Women’s rejection of the collaboration came subsequent to a popular backlash to Uber’s announcement.

Attempts to enhance corporate reputations through sponsorship are, of course, nothing new, but doing so holds risks for nonprofits, which are linking their presumably good names to ones with more reputational problems.