How do you identify and build effective partnerships?
Partnerships are powerful tools that can help organizations maximize their resources. If your organization is in the initial stages of partnership development, the following chart will help you locate the skills and resources required to launch collaborative relationships.
| What Skills or Resources are Needed? | Where Can We Find Those Skills/Resources? | Who Can Contribute Those Skills/Resources? |
|---|---|---|
| Community leadership | Community coalitions and existing community systems | Heads of community groups and associations, faith-based organizations, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and businesses |
| Funding strategies | Federal, state, and local government agencies, community foundations, hospitals, colleges, businesses, and service organizations | Grant writers, business leaders, development professionals, foundation officers, and religious leaders |
| Community assessment, collecting, and analyzing data | Colleges, public health departments, school districts, human services agencies, and community planning agencies | Social scientists, statisticians, and program evaluators |
Steps to Building Effective Partnerships
Listed below are some ideas from skilled partnership builders about partnership development.
Identify your community's positive and negative youth-related challenges. See the Community Assessment for more information.
- Confirm what entities are involved in creating and maintaining activities around these issues. See if partnerships already exist, and consider whether you should join or build something new.
- If forming something new, convene a steering committee to define your purpose and desired outcomes.
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Decide which of the following your organization will be doing:
- Conducting activities or events, such as information and referrals, poster contests, and health fairs.
- Delivering services and/or programs that serve individuals and families.
- Mobilizing the community around specific issues.
- Developing a comprehensive strategy by implementing multi-faceted plans.
- Craft strategies or approaches—to guide your activities and accomplish your organization's proposed outcomes.
- Develop activities—actions to achieve these outcomes.
- Determine who in your community needs to be involved in the planning and implementation of your organization's activities. (Remember to be creative and think outside the box when considering new community partnerships.)
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Once specific people or organizations are identified, consider:
- what members can contribute (e.g., staff time, money, work space, data, media relations, credibility, skills);.
- whether members represent a variety of constituent groups or cultural perspectives, and take note if any perspectives are missing; and
- whether certain organizations or individuals need incentives to join and what they will gain by joining the effort (e.g., increased skills, networking, access to policymakers).
- Create flexible partnerships so they can expand, contract, and form new relationships as your initiative develops.
