Collaboration – questions to ask before you begin.
The following information was summarized from these sources: Yankey & Associates, Mandel Center for Nonprofit Management; Peter Brinckerhoff.
It’s important for your organization to ask itself some questions before you consider beginning a collaboration. This will help you identify the expectations of your organization as well as factors that would stop the process along the way.
- Why do you want to collaborate - what do you want to get out of the collaboration – how do you think it will help you?
- What do you have to offer the other party now, and what are your long term plans for the collaboration?
- How quickly do you need to form this collaboration – what’s the time frame and why?
- Why do you want to work with that particular organization now? What is their reputation – what does the community think of this organization? Will your nonprofit be helped or harmed by the association? What’s their position in the community? What will the community and/or our funders think of this collaboration?
- Are there any concerns about the organization – the ED is about to retire, or be fired, that the board is "difficult," that it is about to lose major funding. What’s the level of quality of their services – and how do you know that? What’s the financial situation of that group?
- Do you have any experience with collaboration and if not, how will you work through all the issues? What happens if the collaboration doesn’t work out – what are the costs and benefits of doing it or not doing it?
