[TEXT: YOUNG AFRICAN LEADERS INITIATIVE ONLINE TRAINING SERIES]
[Hilary Binder-Aviles:] Creating Partnerships [TEXT: CIVIC LEADERSHIP CREATING PARTNERSHIPS Learning Objectives]
In this lesson you’ll understand the benefits of partnerships [TEXT: 1. Understand the benefits of partnerships with other NGOs, government, and business.]
with other NGOs, government, business and others. You’ll
learn the steps for finding and building partnerships, [TEXT: 2. Learn steps for finding partners and building partnerships.]
and you’ll learn ways to manage those partnerships. [TEXT: 3. Learn ways to manage partnerships.]
[TEXT: Hilary Binder-Aviles, Independent NGO Consultant] As a nongovernmental organization, you can’t achieve
your vision for a better society alone. The community needs are
too great, the social problems are too complex, and the resources
are too limited.
Your NGO needs to work with a broad array of
civil society actors — with other NGOs, with government,
with universities, with others — to accomplish your goals.
In short, you need partners.
So what is a partnership? A partnership is when two or more
entities come together to accomplish something that
neither party can achieve alone.
Partners don’t have to agree on everything, but they do have to
share some common goals and be willing to share the labor, the
risks, and then the rewards of working together.
There’s many different kinds of partnerships. Some are informal
and casual; you can talk to each other regularly, share
information, ideas, experiences. Then others are more formal and
structured. These partnerships often involve two or more
NGOs designing, and funding, and running a project
together and having clear, written agreements to do so.
So what are the benefits of partnerships?
By partnering with others,
your NGO can obtain resources such as funding, information,
expertise, skills. A partner might provide a new NGO
with rent-free space for its activities.
You can also build your capacity to develop and manage projects.
We all learn by doing, and smaller NGOs often partner with
larger ones to gain that experience.
Your NGO might be able to expand the reach of its services, its
education, or advocacy efforts by partnering with an NGO that
serves a completely different target population.
So, where do you start? If your NGO is reaching out to find new
partners, here’s a few things you can do.
Create a map of all the other civil society entities that are
working in your community or working on your issues. Based on
what you know about them, is there a fit with your vision?
What could you offer them? And what could you gain from a
relationship with them? Then get to know potential partners.
Ask for an “informational meeting” to share ideas,
learn about each other’s work.
Invite them to your events. Attend their events.
Begin to share information about activities, conferences,
training opportunities, even fundraising ideas.
Explore opportunities for collaboration. If you get to
know another NGO that does similar work, you could offer
them your training curriculum or other materials.
You could bring your staff together to train each
other and share their skills.
Once you gain some experience working with each other and
building trust, then you might consider developing a more
formal partnership — such as a project that you develop,
and raise funds for and manage jointly.
It’s good to start with something easy.
Work together to co-sponsor a community meeting,
or some other event that benefits everyone.
Afterwards, you can assess what worked well, what
didn’t work so well, how did we each benefit, and do we want to
keep working together.
Now, what are some of the challenges that you might face?
When you’re just starting out, you need to build relationships.
Start with networking. Go to events, see who’s there,
introduce yourself, and follow up.
When you begin to build partnerships, you might face
some conflict, some disagreements about goals, and
priorities, and strategies. Some conflict is good — it can lead
to better ideas and better plans. But if you feel your
potential partner is not being sincere or hiding information,
you should stop right there. All successful partnerships
are built on a foundation of honesty and transparency.
When developing a collaborative project, begin by establishing
some ground rules. Agree on what, when, and how you’ll
communicate, what you’ll do if you disagree.
Partnerships take time and energy. Don’t enter into more
partnerships than you can manage. Be clear on your
priorities. Sometimes you might need to say “no” if it’s more
than you can cope with at one time.
Remember that strong relationships, and trust, and
shared goals with mutual benefits are the basis for
successful partnerships.
Regardless of where your NGO is in its lifecycle —
if you’re just starting up or you’re well established — you
still need to invest time and energy into building
relationships with other NGOs, and government,
and universities, and others. Those relationships will change
over time, but they’re always critical to your
NGO’s sustainability.
So working together in collaborative partnerships can
be a positive experience for everyone and bring about
good work, and good results — for your NGO and
for your community.
Now that you’ve completed the course, please visit yali.state.gov
to take the quiz. This will help you test your
knowledge and earn credit towards a special certificate. [TEXT: Test your knowledge: yali.state.gov] [TEXT: YALINetwork Produced by the U.S. Department of State]