In 2002, after 3 years working in the private sector in a marketing, sponsorship and event management capacity, Joanna moved to work for a Corporate Social Responsibility NGO to support and facilitate Corporate-NGO partnerships. Her work involved working with businesses to implement and integrate social investment strategies into core business operations, as well as supporting NGOs to better work with business to achieve their mission. Specifically, Joanna co-ordinated two multi-stakeholder partnerships that included a number of businesses, and spanned multiple geographies. In these roles she provided support to management and employees to manage the complexities of bringing consistency to overall programmes whilst supporting different cities and/or countries to create locally effective and relevant programmes.
Since 2007 Joanna has been working as an independent consultant with The Partnering Initiative and a handful of like-minded small private sector consultancies to facilitate greater understanding and implementation of effective multi-stakeholder collaborations, working with both partnerships and organisations. As an Associate of TPI, Joanna has worked with a wide range of organisations including UNESCO, SOS Children’s Villages, The African Flu Alliance and World Vision. Based in Goa, India, Joanna also leads on developing a strategy and strategic alliances for TPI in India and the surrounding region.
Joanna has a keen interest in creating systems, strategies and tools that support individuals to deliver mission-driven organisational goals. This has led to involvement in exciting projects with institutions to help them develop, evaluate, support and recognise effective partnerships. Having managed complex partnerships herself, she also has a great passion for empowering individuals within organisations with the understanding and skills to be effective partners and facilitators of partnerships. This has lead to a strong emphasis on training and capacity building, and a belief that skilled people within supportive organisational structures can work in partnership and achieve results beyond expectations.