E68: Brand purpose and the Special Olympics

Today’s guest is Michelle Carney, CEO of Special Olympics GB, a non-profit organisation and the largest provider of year-round sports coaching and competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.The organisation has more than 120 all ability, inclusive sports clubs covering 28 sports, providing approximately 27,000 regular hour-long sporting sessions per year.  This is delivered by around 4,000 volunteers who support more than 10,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities.I talk to Michelle about how the Special Olympics is funded, the major event schedule and inevitably the impact of the current shutdown on the critical work done by the organisation around the world. I'm interested in how the Special Olympics is viewed by commercial partners, that line between commercial sponsorship and corporate philanthropy and the growing role of brand purpose in marketing decision making.https://www.specialolympicsgb.org.uk/ Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.