A Pitch for Nonprofit Collaboration |
Mar 16, 2010 |
Over 4.7 million search results came up when I Googled "nonprofit collaboration." Think people are talking about it?? You bet! I saw titles like "Finding the right fit" and "A practical approach to collaboration" and even this "Collaboration: every nonprofit should be doing it"! Although I don't know what any of these writers' takes are on collaboration, I'm going to go ahead and put my hat in the ring for collaboration as well, but I best share why I do lest I get lumped in with someone who says it's important for the sake of just sharing mailing lists!
First, it would be good to address the primary reason why organizations shy away from collaboration, and that is that they see other organizations as competitors. This translates into fear that if they share their expertise and knowledge in the cause and what they're learning about the community needs, why then other organizations will steal that and use it for their advantage. And the result? Why they just might woo your donors away from you! Huh?
You'd almost think that there wasn't enough to go around. You'd almost think God doesn't have the ability to provide for you AND the organization down the street AND the organization across town AND the organization in Somewhere Else town all at the same time!
Parker Palmer shared some great insight about this in his book The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring where he said, “If we allow the scarcity assumption to dominate our thinking, we will act in individualistic, competitive ways that destroy community. If we destroy community, where creating and sharing with others generates abundance, the scarcity assumption will become more valid.”
One of our Transformational Giving (TG) principles also provides some help here: "Transformational Giving is based on the abundance and trustworthiness of God, not a theology of scarcity." When we operate under a TG mindset, there is no room for competitiveness because we know that God’s resources are limitless. And God will provide in the way He knows we need providing for (by the way, that doesn't always mean you get the money you think you need to have!)
Now that that is out of the way, I can share some reasons why I think every nonprofit should take the time to seek out opportunities for collaboration with like-minded organizations.
* Consider how you might strengthen your efforts (two heads are better than one).
* Consider that you can find new and better ways to serve others by sharing best practices and talking about what works and what doesn't.
* Consider the encouragement you can offer one another (we love our jobs but they can be taxing!)
What other reasons can you come up with? Or maybe you'd like to share about a new collaboration effort you've made?
Mar 16, 2010 at 8:45 AM Collaboration is what it is all about if we are to see the world reached for Christ in a wholistic way. But many Christian groups are afraid to collaborate because they feel they might lose something. But real collaboration is where everybody wins. But it is hard to break old patterns. We have a strong tendency to think organizationally instead of how if we worked together the world could be transformed.
Stan
Mar 16, 2010 at 11:17 AM You're absolutely right Stan! Because we are so ingrained with thinking organizationally, I think it would go a long way to block out time every month for meeting with another like-minded organization. Plan to pick up the phone and schedule an informal meeting down at Starbucks to talk about how together you each might better impact the cause. We need to start somewhere if we're going to break out of these "old patterns" as you say.
Mar 17, 2010 at 8:02 AM Suzanne, I agree and we are building a case for this in Seattle. With about 150 non-profits serving the disabled community (18% of the population) there is likely some "competition" but getting beyond that we all recognize we have a common "customer" that is significantly under-served. So we are banding together to form the DDO, Directors of Disabilities Organizations. The mission is simply to: educate, collaborate, advocate. Though we are a mix of secular and faith based charities we all share a passion to serve. There may never be all the funding we would hope for, but sharing resouces through collaboration makes every $ go that much farther. Blessings!