Conversation with… Lou Addison, senior corporate partnerships manager at Sue Ryder
For retailers and consumer-facing businesses, charity partnerships can be far more than a fundraising line in the annual report. Done well, they can bring people together, support colleagues and customers at difficult moments, and create a shared sense of purpose across an organisation.
Here, TRB speaks with Lou Addison, senior corporate partnerships manager at Sue Ryder, about what makes a partnership meaningful, why support around grief and end-of-life care matters so deeply, and how businesses can work with the charity in ways that create lasting change.
Corporate partnerships play a vital role in supporting charities today. From your perspective, what makes a successful partnership between a business and Sue Ryder, and how can organisations create meaningful impact beyond simply raising funds?
Subscribe to TRB“The best partnerships do not necessarily start with the fundraising target,” says Lou. “They start with the problem. What issues are affecting your customers, your colleagues and your communities, and what role can the business play in helping to address that in partnership with a charity?”
For Sue Ryder, that means looking beyond a traditional charity relationship and thinking about how businesses can use their reach, products, services and people to support others at moments when they may be most vulnerable.
“The most significant partnerships do not just raise money,” Lou explains. “They raise awareness, change behaviours, start conversations that might not otherwise happen, and connect people with support at the right time.”
That support is badly needed. Sue Ryder’s research shows that 70% of people could not access the bereavement support they would have liked, while many people living with terminal illness or grief face emotional, practical and financial pressures at the same time.
Lou points to emerging partnership ideas around sympathy cards and gifting, where a thoughtful product can also gently signpost someone towards grief support. Another area of work focuses on the impact of fuel poverty on people who are grieving or living with a terminal illness.
“For retailers, the opportunity is huge,” she says. “Through products, customer communication, store networks and colleague engagement, they can reach people at the moments that matter.”
Many businesses are looking to strengthen their social purpose and community impact. Why do you believe partnering with a charity such as Sue Ryder delivers value not only for the charity, but also for employees, customers and the wider business?
Lou believes the most effective partnerships are those that are designed to work across several levels from the start.
“If you enter into a partnership as a one-dimensional campaign, that is what you will achieve,” she says. “But if you look at it as something more far-reaching and multifaceted, it can go on to influence culture, recruitment, wellbeing, inclusion and the way employees and customers are supported. The strongest partnerships create value on multiple levels.”
One of the reasons Sue Ryder resonates with so many organisations is because its cause is universal. Bereavement, dying and caring responsibilities touch every workforce, every customer base and every community in some way.
“Businesses are supporting employees who may be caring for a loved one, adjusting to a terminal illness diagnosis, or navigating grief themselves,” says Lou. “Through partnerships, organisations can provide access to trusted information and resources. Sometimes that can be as simple as signposting, including support in internal communications, or listing Sue Ryder as a resource on the company intranet.”
That support matters because grief, caring responsibilities and terminal illness are not abstract issues. They are already present in today’s workforce. Lou believes that when employers make trusted information visible and accessible, colleagues are more likely to feel seen, understood and supported at a time when work can otherwise feel very hard to navigate.
There is also a clear customer and commercial dimension. Customers increasingly notice how brands behave and whether they make a positive contribution to society. For businesses, a thoughtful charity partnership can support purpose, colleague pride and customer trust, while also helping a charity reach more people.
The strongest partnerships, she adds, are not held in one department. They create touchpoints across both organisations, from marketing and PR to HR, ED&I, sustainability and colleague engagement.
“Those connections become the Velcro points,” Lou explains. “That is where the collaboration really starts to make a difference.”
Sue Ryder supports people through some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Can you share why the charity’s work is so important and the difference corporate partners help make to the people and families you support every day?
Sue Ryder has been supporting people through dying and grief for more than 70 years. Today, the charity provides palliative and end-of-life care, bereavement support, online services, community support and specialist resources for people who need help at some of the hardest points in life.
Much of that support happens away from the places people might expect. Around 80% of Sue Ryder’s palliative and end-of-life care is delivered by nurses and doctors in people’s own homes, while the charity also provides counselling, peer support and practical grief information for thousands of bereaved people each year.
In the last year alone, Sue Ryder delivered more than 657,000 hours of palliative and end-of-life care, more than 11,200 online bereavement counselling sessions, and supported over 220,000 visitors through its online bereavement community.
For Lou, corporate partners help Sue Ryder reach people in ways that charity services alone may not always be able to do. A retailer, for example, might have stores on high streets, direct customer relationships, strong colleague networks and product ranges that can carry thoughtful messages of support.
Lou shares one current area of work around sympathy gifts and cards, informed by research with almost 2,000 bereaved people. The findings revealed how much thought matters at such a delicate time, from practical gestures and offers of time, to gifts that feel gentle rather than overwhelming.
“The idea is that when somebody receives a sympathy card or gift, it is not only thoughtful, but also practical,” she says. “It can signpost them to Sue Ryder Grief Services, so they know where to turn if they need support.”
Corporate partnerships can also support Sue Ryder’s wider work, from hospice care and grief services to training, volunteering, sustainability projects and reuse initiatives. These collaborations help the charity be there for more people, while giving businesses practical ways to support colleagues, customers and communities.
Its retail network is a major part of that picture too. Sue Ryder’s nearly 400 shops have contributed more than £70 million towards the charity’s expert palliative, end-of-life and bereavement support over the last five years. They are also places where many of its 12,000 volunteers build confidence, develop skills and make social connections in their local communities.
“People often think of our shops simply as places that sell donated items,” Lou says. “But they are much more than that. They support local communities, volunteering, sustainability, reuse and, increasingly, they help people find information and support they might not otherwise know exists.”
For organisations considering a new charitable partnership, what would you say to leaders about the importance of supporting Sue Ryder, and what opportunities exist for businesses to make a lasting contribution through collaboration?
Lou encourages leaders to begin with a slightly different question.
“Rather than asking, ‘Which charity should we support?’, ask, ‘What is the problem we are uniquely placed to help solve?’ or ‘What is the biggest issue affecting our colleagues or customers right now?'” she says.
That might mean looking at a business’s customer base, physical locations, products, services, data, sustainability goals or colleague skills, and then exploring where Sue Ryder’s expertise can help create something meaningful.
Lou says many people know Sue Ryder for its charity shops and health services, but the charity’s work is much broader. It includes bereavement awareness training, a learning academy, volunteering opportunities, reuse workshops, repaired bike sales, bike maintenance, upcycling, sustainability initiatives and many different ways for businesses to get involved.
One example close to Lou’s heart is Sue Ryder’s partnership with Lloyds Banking Group and London College of Fashion, built around sustainability. Stock from Sue Ryder’s London shops was given a new life through student design and showcased on the catwalk, creating a powerful platform for charity retail, reuse and sustainable fashion.
Other partnerships may look entirely different. A business might fund a specific service, sponsor a nurse, support bereavement counselling, donate surplus stock, open up venues or facilities, share specialist expertise, create volunteering opportunities, or use its customer communications to gently connect people with grief support when they need it.
“It was not a partnership that came from an obvious connection with end-of-life care or bereavement,” says Lou. “It came from a shared sustainability ambition. That is what makes it so exciting. When you start with what each organisation can bring, the opportunities become much bigger.”
Her final advice to business leaders is to give partnerships time to grow.
“The best ideas tend to come when you have built the relationship,” she says. “When the marketing team has worked with the marketing team, PR has worked with PR, and people really understand each other. Some of the most innovative ideas rarely appear on day one. They come later, when both sides understand each other’s challenges, strengths and ambitions. Patience and time are just as important as the initial idea.”
For businesses in retail, that is a powerful reminder. The most meaningful charity partnerships are not simply about choosing a good cause, although that matters. They are about finding a cause that connects with people, using the business’s own strengths well, and creating support that reaches customers, colleagues and communities when it is needed most.
To find out more about Sue Ryder corporate partnerships, businesses can contact the Sue Ryder corporate partnerships team and/or email [email protected]
