As you navigate this season of uncertainty, how are you behaving?

Some folks become protective – of their families, their neighborhoods, their nonprofits. In moments like these, you might feel a strong urge to hunker down, preserve what you can, and ride out the storm.

Others experience uncertainty as an opportunity for change. If traditional rules no longer apply – when was last time you greeted someone with a handshake? – how can you use this crisis to re-imagine your work?

In the spirit of seizing this “change moment,” consider how you engage with peer organizations. How might you deepen those relationships for mutual benefit?

Here’s a five-step process to help you think a little differently about partnerships.

Step 1: Clarify your niche 

Every nonprofit operates in a complex world filled with peer organizations, competitors, funders, donors, government agencies, and so on. If you aspire to be a stronger collaborator, your first step is to figure out your role in relation to others.

What are your unique assets? Compared to peers, in what ways are you strongest?

To help you answer these questions, here are two helpful tools. I encourage you to study and use them.

• The MacMillan Matrix, developed by Dr. Ian MacMillan
• The Matrix Map, created by Jeanne Bell, Steve Zimmerman, and Jan Masaoka

Step 2: Identify when to lead (or not)

Some partnerships are created among equals; many are not. Indeed, effective partners are not required to have the same number of staff or budget size.

Clarifying your niche helps you determine when to take a strong leadership position, and when you can add more value by supporting the efforts of other groups.

Indeed, you might consider a collaborative strategic planning process with multiple organizations as a way of sorting this out collectively.

Step 3: Know your collaboration options

Organizations interact with each other across a broad continuum, ranging from hard-core competition to total integration. A popular version of this spectrum was developed by the Tamarack Institute.

While it’s theoretically possible to jump from one end to the other – “We’ve been fighting for years. Why don’t we merge?” – that’s not how reality works. Most partners move down the line together, step by step.

This process might be intentional and structured, or it might be opportunistic. Regardless, it’s helpful to have road map. Here are a few examples at the deeper-collaboration end of the spectrum.

Cooperate: Jointly sponsored programs.

Coordinate: Shared support services: accounting, payroll, office space.

Collaborate: Shared staff, program planning, and fundraising. 

Integrate: Full merger or strategic partnership.

Step 4: Seek out potential partners

As you consider possible partnerships, ask yourselves the following questions:

• Where is our relationship now on the collaboration continuum? (And do both organizations agree?)
• What are our opportunities? What could we do better together?
• What can we try now, starting with a low-risk option, to deepen our relationship?

If this sounds like dating, yes. That’s the classic metaphor for how this works.

Step 5: Look for shared fundraising opportunities

In some circumstances, partners can “leverage up” to raise more money together.

For example, three grassroots conservation groups – a land trust, a trail-building organization, and an outdoor education group – decide to design a shared project based on their respective strengths. They submit a proposal to large regional foundation that none of them could have approached individually. They receive the grant, divide up the money as outlined in the proposal, and do the project together.

Other shared fundraising strategies include:

• Funder briefings
• Joint fundraising events (live or virtual)
• Giving days: local, statewide, regional, or sector-specific
• Joint approaches to individual major donors
• Shared fundraising training for multiple organizations

For a lot more on this subject, here’s a blog post from the archives: More Money Together: Shared Fundraising Strategies.

Want more? There’s a webinar for that

On May 13, join us for the webinar Stronger Together: Collaborations, Shared Services, and Joint Fundraising.

It’s hosted by the Community Resource Center in Colorado, and it’s open to everyone, everywhere.

We’ll take a deep look at collaboration, with lots of time to answer your questions. I hope you can participate!