Partnership and Collaboration

Partnerships or collaborations among agencies or programs are most effective when connections are established early in a project and cultivated throughout its life cycle. Strong partnerships involve others who are interested in the goals of your project, those who are best situated to make changes, groups that are affected by the problems you are addressing, and those who are essential players. Leadership of a collaborative partnership involves clarifying roles, running meetings, and in general having or developing a model of how to work together towards your goals.

An example: How can partnerships and collaboration be used to sustain your program? Here's an example: If your Tribal Youth Program (TYP) delivers delinquency prevention services to youth, your work probably involves serving youth who may also be in need of other services such as mental health or substance abuse treatment. Partnering with local providers of these services can improve service delivery to youth. If you share the goal of sustaining these services beyond grant funding, you can work with these partners to create a service delivery system that is sustainable, perhaps establishing revenue streams such as third party payments or local mental health funding. Partners often become willing to make small changes in ways services are delivered that make such sustainability possible.

Identifying Strategic Partners

What will you do when the grant runs out? You'll get by with the help of your friends. Making these friends—the ones that will support your program—means developing relationships with the people who matter to your work. Who are they?

• Youth, parents, grandparents, extended family, and caregivers because they can give you feedback to improve your activities and attract others. Plus, today's participant may be tomorrow's volunteer
  
• People from whom you want permission and blessings, such as the tribal council and elders
  
• People work in other programs that have natural or possible connections to your work
  
• People who control resources such as local funding, office equipment and supplies, office and meeting space, transportation, and can donate staff time to help you
  
• People who control possible sources of outside funding, such as county, state and federal government and foundations

Strategies for engaging partners for sustainability http://www.nationalserviceresources.org/filemanager/download/online/sustainability_strategies.pdf

Managing Partner Roles and Expectations

How do you develop relationships that result in long-lasting support? Invite key people—the people you need as supporters--to be involved from the beginning. When people participate in setting the vision, two things happen: First, they see ways they can help; and second, they tend to care more deeply. Partners who are involved and care deeply will help you find ways to continue your work after the grant runs out.
So ask their opinions and ideas, and adopt them when you can. Invite them to meetings and communicate often--share minutes, reports and informal stories with them. Ask them to make presentations at your meetings when it is appropriate. Find ways to work together on activities or projects, and spell out the role of each organization in a memorandum of understanding. Be dependable and trustworthy.

The Collaboration Challenge: How nonprofits and businesses succeed through strategic alliances
http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/06/07879522/0787952206.pdf

Joint fundraising: Promises and Pitfalls for Coalitions
http://mosaica.coure-tech.com/resources/jfundr.pdf

Sustaining Partnerships

The sustainability of your program depends on making it important in your community not only by achieving good results, but also by inviting key members of the community to join in the effort and share the success. When they are pleased and proud about the success of the TYP, they will work to keep it going.

Sustainability of community coalitions: an evaluation of communities that care. (Report)
http://www.springerlink.com/content/x342459j20574077/?p=d590c1ce14824370ad38ccd7980a92da&pi=0

Coalition Sustainability: Long term successes and lessons learned. (Article)
http://www.joe.org/joe/2002february/a2.html

Maintain coalitions and partnerships (Toolkit)
http://ctb.ku.edu/tools/coalitions/expand/index.jsp

Success and Sustainability of Effective Coalitions
http://healthvermont.gov/adap/prevention/NOVTRAININGCOALITIONS.doc

CADCA teleconference: Sustaining: The future of Community Coalitions. Ncadi. (Webcast)
http://cadca.org/CoalitionResources/SBArchives/OM2.02.doc