This is the first in a series of blog posts leading up to the 2011 SDC Poverty Symposium. Each post will explore one of the main topics to be discussed in the Symposium's 11 workshops and two keynote speeches. For more information, including registration, please visit the SDC Symposium webpage
What Can Relationships Do For You? How Partnerships, Alliances, and Formal Consolidations can Help Achieve Your Mission:
In a world of shrinking resources and increasing human need, what’s a nonprofit organization to do? There’s no single answer to this question. Instead, local organizations can teach us that there are a variety of options – innovative options – that can allow agencies of all kinds to not only adapt to the changing financial landscape nonprofits face, but to thrive in the pursuit of their missions. Creating opportunities for partnering, collaborating, aligning, or consolidating can translate into greater efficiency in service delivery or even save vital programs from being lost completely.
Alliances, collaborations, and consolidations are not new poverty-reducing strategies by any means. As the division of labor in society has grown more complex and more diversified due to changes in economic organization and technological advancement, nonprofits have sought ways to remain humanistic, relevant, and effective.
Because of the high degree of service-delivery specialization, anti-poverty agencies need to reexamine how partnerships, alliances, collaborations, and consolidations can be used to their maximum potential. How should partnerships be structured? How can they yield significant returns-on-investment? Are there newly emergent forms of organization? Are there underutilized tools? For what types of issues and services do collaborations or consolidations work well? How do individual agencies and partners see their respective roles? What benefits do they have for participating agencies? It is critical to ask and think strategically about these types of questions before engaging in collaborative efforts in order to ensure that it makes economic and organizational sense for the organization and its clientele.
What follows are brief synopses of:
1) New ways of thinking about old conceptions of partnerships and collaborations;
2) Effective means of organizing programs with fewer public resources; and
3) Emergent tools and strategies to facilitate partnerships and collaborations.
Partnerships / Collaborations: There are various types of partnerships and strategic alliances. They follow a general continuum ranging from very informal on one end to arrangements requiring higher levels of complexity and formality at the other end. Collaborative organizational work is challenging and requires tactical, thoughtful planning to be successful. Starting the conversation within an organization is the first challenge. For organizations that want to engage nonprofits in the partnership question, but don’t know how, the nonprofit organization consultants Dewey & Kaye liken this challenge to dating (i.e. Should I ask her out? Will he like me? What if s/he says no?). The result is a few practical exercises that organizations can do that parallel this line of thinking:
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Conduct an environmental and organizational assessment. Who am I? What makes me tick? What do I bring to the table? What’s really important vs. what do I perceive is important?
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Determine criteria for success. What does my success look like? Will I be happy in a small cottage or do I need a waterfront mansion? Do I need bling for happiness or a partner who is down to earth?
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Determine key characteristics of a compatible partner. Good dancer? Gourmet cook? Loves dogs? Travel to familiar destinations or remote lands? (See the Patterson Foundation blog: http://collaborative.thepattersonfoundation.org/?p=193)
Another helpful step is to become familiar with the various types of strategic alliances. Having a better understanding of the various types of partnerships and alliances provides a backdrop to seek out and learn about real life examples of how nonprofits are working together to achieve their missions. Sessions at the symposium will include examples from local executives and program administrators who will share their collaboration and partnering experiences. Presenters will discuss why and how their collaborative relationships have been successful, lessons learned, pitfalls to avoid, and suggestions and tools that can help make your collaborative efforts a success.
Consolidations / Mergers: Sometimes the “elephant in the room,” the merger conversation has the capacity to fall on skeptical ears. Yet there indeed are good reasons for nonprofits to take such action, often for the sake of saving the much needed services designed to help vulnerable populations, if not simply for efficiency.
The reasons to merge are many. Because the process of merging is not simple, it’s important for everyone involved to stay apprised of the long-term strategic reasons for the changes. Joining forces with another organization – no matter the specific type – requires time, money, and planning to culminate in successful implementation.
Presenters at the symposium will discuss their experiences with consolidation / merger activities in their organizations, including when such action makes sense and factors to consider in its undertaking.
Social Media as a Collaborative Tool: At a recent talk at Cardinal Stritch University sponsored by the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee and US Bank, noted nonprofit consultant David La Piana identified five trends that are reshaping the social sector. One of the five he identifies is “Technological Advances Abound.” In his report, Convergence: How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector, Li Piana argues that,
“The rise of social media has challenged nonprofits to embrace new ways of connecting and communicating, demanding greater openness and transparency… yet many nonprofits are still struggling to know when and how to use these new tools in ways that truly contribute toward advancing their mission.”
Whether it is indifference or enthusiastic fervor, attitudes toward social media will not slow down its prominence in U.S. culture. Its creativity and recent emergence suggests that nonprofits can use social media in a redesign of poverty-reduction strategies in Milwaukee.
As more and more organizations attempt to reach out to their constituencies through venues like Facebook, Twitter, etc., social media has become a prominent means of staying connected to supporters, funders, and other agencies. Technology is here to stay and many people are unaware (or afraid!) of its usefulness as a tool for organizational operations. There is considerable debate as to whether social media is just a fad or if it will be a sustained means of communication. To coincide with the discussions of collaboration and partnerships among nonprofit organizations and other entities, this year’s symposium offers the opportunity to learn more about the untapped potential of social media for nonprofit professionals.
When the reality requires that nonprofits do more with fewer resources, joining forces toward mission achievement makes a lot of sense. But there is no one absolute way to do this. Thus, it is very important that nonprofit administrators think carefully and strategically about how to join forces. There are many vehicles for collaborative work, several of which will be showcased in this topic’s workshops and panels. We hope the local examples presenters will discuss help you learn and better understand how relationship building in action can lead to effective partnerships, alliances, or mergers that ultimately benefit Milwaukee’s nonprofit clientele.
Lorna Dilley
Policy Analyst