XTreme Collaboration in the Nonprofit Sector

Many years ago at Creating Space, we held a session called Xtreme Collaboration. We were trying to figure out how we might test the assumption that we were in competition with each other for limited financial resources. The implications of this prevalent thinking are huge, i.e. the more closely your mission work is aligned with another organization, the more you are competing for resources within a limited niche. When you get right down to it this is pretty paradoxical, and downright sad. This is why at LLC we often talk about the hazards of “organizational sustainability” and how things might change if we began to talk about the need for mission sustainability. Or better yet, we could talk about interdependence. john powell of the Kirwan Institute talks about the need for a new social justice paradigm based on a profound recognition of our interdependence.

Back to the Xtreme collaboration session. We decided that we would share information with each other about who we were each approaching for funding and make a commitment to advocate for one another if we saw that someone had a proposal into a funder with whom we already had a relationship. The new hypothesis that we were testing was that we could generate more resources this way and that no one would lose funds from an existing supporter simply because they helped another program receive funds as well. It was hard to track the results and some of the early participants did get a bit squeamish and drop off. But we did see some positive results - I can say confidently that LLC was able to help generate an additional $275,000 for other programs with strong personal endorsements.

It is time to set aside the competitive and fear-based thinking. I realize that this is not intuitive when we all know that funding has been reduced by as much as one third. Still, as the stakes have gone up, so has my concern about the well-being of other organizations when it’s not just a matter of who will get the grant, but who can survive. We have to find new and creative ways of helping each other. We began with our board.

The LLC board members have taken on new roles as collaborative partners that give me an expanded sense of what is possible. One board member, Cynthia Chavez of LeaderSpring suggested that our two organizations collaboratively arrange meetings with funders we each knew so that we could go together to provide testimony to the value of each other’s work and share our contacts. Donna Stark, board co-chair and Vice President at Annie E. Casey Foundation, funded LLC to organize a learning exchange among New York funders. Eugene Kim, board co-chair and Principal of Blue Oxen Associates, has helped LLC develop cost-saving and effective solutions to LLC’s technology needs. Carla Dartis, board member and Executive Director at Tides Center, has been helping LLC to explore consulting and partnership opportunities at Tides. Ashok Regmi, board member and Global Director at the International Youth Foundation, is helping to develop marketing materials for LLC’s consulting business; and Sonia Ospina, board member and Associate Professor and Faculty Director at the Research Center for Leadership in Action, has created an organizational partnership between her organization and LLC to host the New York LLC Circle. A new board member, Grady McGonagill, Principal of McGonagill Associates, is collaboratively writing an article with LLC staff for the Foundation Review. Board members have also stepped up to write articles for the LLC newsletter. These are just a few recent examples of how board members are bringing time and resources as collaborators in the work. A key learning for us is when looking for collaborative partners, look to the people closest to your work for support and don’t limit their creativity with conventional expectations.