Lessons Learned Guiding Principles
Partnerships can be defined basically as establishing mutual or common interest and working together to accomplish goals; they can be voluntary or mandated…
Partnerships can be defined basically as establishing mutual or common interest and working together to accomplish goals; they can be voluntary or mandated.
Partnerships have some important advantages; they often:
Partnership exists on a continuum: cooperation, collaboration, coordination, partnership, each representing different levels of relationship between two or more organizations. Co-operation is common, and the least demanding. Collaboration occurs from time to time in the life of an organization (e.g., collaboration on a specific project), and is clearly more demanding on the time and effort of an organization than co-operation. Coordination requires collaboration on the development of agreed-upon protocols plus regular contact. Formalized partnership is the most demanding and the most (potentially) long-term form of relationship. Think twice about forming a partnership if all you really need is more co-operation, collaboration or coordination.
Funders sometimes “arrange” partnerships, and if this happens to your organization, scrutinize the deal very carefully. Ideally, start developing partnerships before being asked to by funders. The success of a partnership depends on many factors (and pressure from a funder isn’t one of them) and it takes time to find a good match (as well implement a good start up process).
o promote new levels of enthusiasm and “buy in” among stakeholders
o provide value-added to both funders and consumers
o strengthen the level of expertise in a project
o expand service offerings to clients
o allow agencies to venture into growth-promoting projects that they wouldn’t be able to undertake on their own
o provide access to more opportunities for management and staff
o provide economies of scale
o result in better service co-ordination
