Innovative Partnerships

By Nicole Hanrahan, Senior Consultant, Community Wealth Ventures and Warren Tranquada, CEO, Aperio

Increasingly nonprofits are forming innovative partnerships to grow their organizations and expand mission reach. These partnerships take many forms, from the logical to the unlikely, but they prove that partnering, even with unlikely bedfellows, can have a significant positive impact on the growth of a nonprofit organization.

For example, the Hands on Network and the Points of Light Foundation were competitors and two of the country’s largest volunteer networks. Both needed scale to maximize their impact.  By merging, these former competitors have established a streamlined, comprehensive volunteer management solution that works with more than 80% of people volunteering in America each year.

Another partnership among two nonprofit organizations, Fair Trade and Transfair USA, and one for-profit group Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, has catapulted the profits of Green Mountain Coffee and created the tipping point in the market growth of fair trade coffee sales, which grew 91% in 2003 versus 25%., which industry analysts had projected before the merger.

Even this article (and the workshop that inspired it) is the result of a joint effort by two consulting firms, Aperio and Community Wealth Ventures, competitors serving the same market.

Shared Characteristics of Successful Partnerships
Successful partnerships may be formed in a variety of ways: between nonprofits and government organizations, between competitors, between for-profits, and between nonprofits in different regions. Typically they are all defined by three primary characteristics:

1) A shared strategic goal: The partnership needs to have a purpose distinct from the purpose of each partner.

2) Shared risk and return: Each partner needs to have a stake in the outcome.

3) Negotiated objectives: The foundation of a partnership is agreement on the measures of success.

As the examples above illustrate, partnerships can open up new market opportunities, create efficiencies, and enhance visibility, which can lead to more demand.

Putting Together a Successful Partnership
If your organization is considering a partnership as a growth strategy, the following is a framework to use for selecting the right organization.

1.    Identify Your Needs and Strengths

  Consider these questions:

• What are you hoping to accomplish?

• What are your areas of expertise?

• Are you looking to do something new or to do something better?

• Where could you benefit from outside expertise or relationships?

      2.    Establish Your Partnership Criteria

         Develop a profile of the ideal partner:

• What are the assets and strengths of this partner?

• What are the needs of this partner? 

• What can your organization offer that will be valuable?

      3.    Identify Your Potential Partners

Conduct research of potential partners by bringing staff and board together for a brainstorming session. Consider these questions:

• What organizations can offer what you need?

• What organizations would benefit from what you have?

Criteria to Consider When Selecting a Partner

Once you have a list of potential partners, the next step is to screen them. Remember to keep an open mind: Do not assume a partnership will not work until you have done the following:

1.    Look for overlapping goals or needs

• Is the potential partner serving a target you want to serve but that you either cannot serve on your own or that you could serve better with a partner?

• Is the potential partner interested in serving a region you want to serve?

• Does the partner have the same philosophical approach, culture, or way of doing things?

      2.    Delineate your position on partnership

Who would govern and lead the partnership and how would it be structured?

      3.    Assess organizational fit

Consider the following:

 

Trust –You must be able to work well together, and without trust, that will be impossible.

Mission Fit – The potential partner’s mission does not need to match, but it should not be contradictory within the context of the partnership.

Cultural Fit – The fit of your culture with the potential partner is more important with more involved partnerships.  It is less important with more discrete types of work. 

Objectives – You do not need to have the same goals as the potential partner, but you must want to perform the same activities.

At the end of the day, a partnership requires trust and a shared understanding of purpose. In selecting a partner, it is less important to think about traditional definitions of competition and more important to think about your ability to work together toward a shared goal. Great partnerships can deliver transformational value when built on a solid foundation

Aperio is a strategic consulting firm that works with US, Canadian and UK based social sector organizations.  Aperio helps clients recognize their most important challenges and opportunities, and helps them create and implement strategic solutions.
 

» BACK TO FRONT PAGE

» Message From the Managing Director

» Going Global

» A New Kind of Grant

» Advocating for Policy Changes

» Top Ten: Room to Grow

» New and Noteworthy

» FRONT PAGE