SCORE Community Partners Explained

SCORE forms community partnerships  with like-minded organizations that help small business owners. No dollars are exchanged, which distinguishes these partnerships from corporate partnerships and sponsorships managed by the SCORE Foundation.  The goal of these partnerships is to build awareness for SCORE’s brands and services with new audiences.  

Types of partners include: 

SBA & Fellow SBA Resource Partners

• U.S. Small Business Administration - SCORE is a resource partner of the SBA. Local SBA offices can be found here. Along with SCORE, other SBA Resource Partners include the following, all of whom have a national office as well as local offices (which can be found at the links below).
• Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
• Veterans Business Outreach Center  (VBOC)
• Women’s Business Centers (WBCs)

National Community Partnerships

• Involve a large audience (25,000+) of business owners or significant reach (10,000+) and high trust in target market (women, veterans, rural) * Examples: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, USDA
• Potential for significant ($10,000+) in-kind donations of products or services that could be purchased on the open market, such as advertising, graphic design, writing, etc. 
• Process: MOU signed with HQ. Collaboration occurs on a consistent basis throughout the year. 
• Current National Community Partners

National Content Partnership

• Created when outside organizations want to share score.org content, write a blog post or link back to our mentoring/workshops.
• Process: Send to marketing at marketing@score.org.

Local Community Partnerships

• Local community partner relationships have historically been managed by chapter volunteers.
• In FY25, a regional initiative will build an effective national model for local community outreach, identify and test best practices, develop branded resources and tools, and guide establishment of a national structure in support of the field organization for community outreach. Pending outcomes – along with staff and budget considerations – this strategy will be adopted for national launch in FY26 including technological support for tracking of community partners in Engage.