Do you know what you give?
Spoiler alert: I want more from you, and I have an invitation at the end of this article. A true and honest invitation.
When working in nonprofits, the act of asking can become a safe or common practice. We get used to asking for money, in-kind donations, volunteer hours and other needs we might have. Specifically, in my position as Volunteer Coordinator, I’m always trying to find groups and individuals willing to donate their time to help us reach our goals. When it comes to groups, I’m absolutely thankful for having them join us. However, I had not yet thought about dealing with these groups as they should be dealt with: as partners.
A recent VAN Roundtable talked about “Reinventing Partnerships for Success” and it made me rethink all my prerogatives about having groups volunteering with us. My starting point changed from asking questions such as “how can I get groups?” to “how can I cultivate partners?”, and I am learning a whole lot more as a result.
This article is by no means an informational and final “how to make partnerships” paper but is instead a summary of my findings and where I am starting from. Hopefully in a few months I’ll be able to come back to this article with an update of the results that came from it. For now, here are some key points on finding and starting partnerships:
- “Partnerships are complex vehicles for delivering practical solutions to societal and community issues.” They act as a two-way relationship between organizations to contribute to each other. So think about it: what do you bring to the table?
- To be able to mutually contribute, the first sign you have to look for are shared goals. Having both culture and brand alignment will allow impact and success to arise.
- Contribution means that all organizations can benefit from the partnership. Some benefits that come to mind are advertisement from one or both sides, the sharing of information for accelerated learning, distribution of skills and expertise, career shadowing, and volunteer groups. (Can you think of more?)
- I feel I keep getting back to these concepts on all subjects I read/write about: ownership and accountability. Ownership to honor the partnership as it was designed and accountability for the results (or lack of).
- Provide proof of impact, information, data, photos, and stories. Doing so is not only a great way to keep parties involved and inspired, but it can be a great material to advertise and put on annual reports.
- Provide clear ways and create projects in which the clients/employees of each organization can be engaged and benefit from the partnership.
- Allow the partnership to evolve through sustainability, evaluation and flexibility. Creating strong feedback loops can be extremely helpful.
- Look for a partner with strengths that complement your weaknesses. And the other way around.
After ruminating about all of this for a while, here’s what I came up with: our current need is for volunteer groups to come to our thrift store and to help sort donations for half a day.
- First, I am looking into organizations/groups/companies with missions that match ours. We work to prevent child abuse and neglect, so how about people that deal directly with kids or have a relationship with them (toy stores, recreational centers, teachers, moms groups)?
- And why would they help? By spending time with us, they will be able to help an organization that is working to create a better world for their target audiences. They also get to work together in a different environment, which creates opportunity to participate with role models, to build teams, and to relieve stress. Volunteering as a group increases organizational culture, morale, and retention.
- And what can we offer? Providing the space and expertise on hosting groups will relieve them of having to organize the event themselves. Also, we can create platforms for advertising this partnership on our social media and emailing system. And we can provide them with information about their impact to share with their network and annual reports.
- Another idea that popped up but is still in rumination is going to their organization to talk about child abuse and neglect, providing our specific expertise to raise awareness and join forces in this fight.
Personally, replacing “groups” with “partners” in my mind allows me to think more holistically about our mission and how we can integrate more people into it. Bringing people closer to the nonprofit and volunteering world can only result in improvement of our social culture and, therefore, of our reality. It makes me see my work more intimately and feel it in my guts and heart.
After all this reading on partnership, I caught myself thinking of how I can be of service of those people that read me. And I want to take our relationship (yes, you and me!) to a new level: I’d love to know if this article impacted you somehow and what is one thing that you will take from it. Or even what are some ideas that have worked or not worked for you in the past. I’d also love opinions and suggestions on this partnership plan I came up with.
So here’s my invite: let’s be partners?
Resources:
- Top Nonprofits
- Huffington Post
Revised by Isabelle Jade.
LET’S CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION!
The comments below are open and ready for your inputs.
