How to Choose One’s Partners: A Note for Boards of Nonprofit Organizations
We recently stumbled across a nice resource from the Johnson Center at Grand Valley State University called, "How to Choose One’s Partners: A Note for Boards of Nonprofit Organizations."
Although the information is focused on Boards, these are great tips for anyone who is considering collaboration and partnership. Important variables for the success of a partnership include:
- Mission Alignment: Choosing an organization with a complimentary mission is paramount to successful partnerships.
- Resources: Although both sides won't have equal resources, understanding the value that both bring to the table is important.
- Culture: Engaging staff from the very beginning to build a culture of change that supports and strengthens the mission.
- Size of the Partnership: The larger the partnership, the more human resources will need to allocated.
- Leadership and Management: Empower the staff team to manage the details to avoid micromanagement from the Board.
- Due Diligence: Get those skeletons out of the closet and leave no stone unturned. Both orgs need to know what they're getting into.
- Real and Opportunity Costs: While partnerships can save money, they can also add legal costs and may also distract staff from mission-based activities, thus costing the community. Assessing the costs and risks up front is key.
- Memorandum of Understanding: Document the intent to partner in writing and make sure there is clear understanding. Partnerships shouldn't be done on a "handshake."
- Identifying Intended Outcomes: What are the goals of the partnership? How will they be achieved and measured?
- Evaluations and Accountability: The board should ensure that it tracks both the strategic and program outcomes from the partnership and adjust as necessary.
Summary by Laura Deaton
Transformative Collaboration: Coalitions, Strategic Alliances, Joint Ventures, Mergers
Third Sector Connector member and colleague Alison Rapping from Alison & Associates published an outstanding blog posting on Transformative Collaboration. And, as a bonus, it's just one in a series of posts on this topic. The post includes:
- A list of powerful questions to jump-start your collaboration efforts
- Working definitions of Coalition, Collaboration, Strategic Alliance, Joint Venture and Merger
- 5 tips to creating successful collaborations: Intention, Mutual Respect and Trust, Goals and Accountability, Evaluation, and Celebration.
"In the new decade we are in the “perfect collaboration storm:” energy around our “community visions”, enormous critical community needs, myriad of new nonprofit organizations, and desire for greater impact. This can only happen if we work together. Our community is whole and interconnected; we can’t create a powerful vision in silos."
Read Alison's full post here (Really, it is a "must read.")
Tip submitted by Laura Deaton.
Partnerships - Cooperation, Coordination, Collaboration
Every community-based organization needs a strategy for forging and stewarding partnerships with other organizations, but that strategy also needs to be clearly articulated and understood across the organization so that appropriate resources are allocated. Paul C. Light, in "Making Nonprofits Work: A Report on The Tides of Nonprofit Management Reform" provides a really simple and clear matrix that defines types of partnerships and the level of resources needed to sustain them.
Cooperation | Coordination | Collaboration |
Contributing Resources Agencies contribute resources to another agency’s project or effort. | Reconciling Activities Agencies adjust or combine existing programs to deliver services more effectively. | Sharing Program Responsibilities Agencies come together as a new entity to provide services or to manage a resource. |
Promoting Others Agencies willingly share information about the work or services of others. | Sharing Resources or Programs Agencies that use the same good or service agree to share in its cost. | Creating New Systems Agencies work to create and implement a new model to deliver services or address a public problem. |
Sharing Information Agencies share information on a formal or informal basis. | Producing Joint Projects Agencies depend upon each other for producing a specific product or event; may be short-term. | Planning Collectively Agencies develop a vision or conduct a study for the management of a resource or the alleviation of a social problem. |
If you start at the bottom of the matrix and move up the matrix, the level of resource involvement increases as does the level of power sharing necessary when you move to the right. The lowest resource/least power-sharing model is "Sharing Information" and the highest resource/most power-sharing level is "Shared Program Responsibilities." While I find the model missing some nuance, I also think that it provide a strong framework for early partnership discussions, for reaching consensus, and for creating an accompanying stewardship model for different levels of partnerships and relationships.
What do you think?
Building Effective Cross-Sector Partnerships
In a recent article titled "Cross sector partnering: A case study award in India," I highlighted several key questions for NGOs and nonprofits who are considering collaboration with corporate partners. They include:
- Where does the relationship fall on the collaboration continuum?
- Do both partners have written collaboration purpose statements?
- What are the missions, strategies, and values of each partner?
Several additional questions are also included alongside an interesting case study from the Community Technology Services project for children and young adults in low and moderate income Indian communities in Madurai, India funded by Panda Software International,(Panda Security), Spain as part of its corporate social responsibility programmes.
You are invited to follow the link to read the article published online in IM Magazine, Portugal here: http://artigos.immagazine.sapo.pt/en/ ... is/crosssectorpartnering/
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