Nonprofit Collaboration; Staffing, Leadership, Board Structure & other Nonprofits

Consider the readings and videos regarding nonprofit collaboration, staffing and board structure. We looked at governance earlier in the course. This is less about leadership and more about program delivery. How can collaborations, partnerships, and mergers work within the non-profit world. What role can staff, management or board members play in these opportunities to collaborate. For example, Harvesters is a food bank. Harvesters has 760 other nonprofits with feeding programs. Most get 85% of the food they distribute from Harvesters but they still need to raise funds or do food drives to keep up with the need. Where do you see opportunities for collaboration? How could the nonprofits' staff, board or supporters help guide this collaboration so that work is done better or more efficiently? In this forum, consider some common obstacles to collaboration that block mergers and/or strategic partnerships from happening.

To start things off, please watch the video embedded below:

It's often the case that passionate non-profiteers will recoil in disgust when a non-profit board member postures a need for an equitable win-win collaboration between entities. In some instances, this can be a "deal-breaker" preventing a merger or partnership between non-profits moving forward at all. In some cases, what may be perceived as greedy, selfish, power-hungry, or other some other conflict barrier, is often simply a balancing act and/or necessary vetting of how and why a partnership between non-profits makes sense or not.

Helpful definitions as you consider the material:

• Collaboration: For our purposes here, collaboration is two or more people or entities working together to achieve a common aim. Ultimately, the collaboration would be a poor idea if the "common aim" is not clearly so common between parties right?
• Merger: This refers to the combining of multiple elements, particularly organizational entities, into one. In order for a merger to make sense, a collaboration has to make sense first. We can't merge what can't be collaborated on or we will just make a big mess.
• What skills are helpful in collaboration?
• What are some barriers for collaboration, especially with nonprofits that have founders working there or when considering large and small nonprofits collaborating together?

Your Forum #8 assignment is...

• Collaboration: Discuss some of the nuances of collaboration in the non-profit world vs. the for-profit world. Are there any differences in your view? Be convincing in your approach attempting to kind of "sell us" on your beliefs on this issue.
• Common Barriers to Collaboration: Read the Harvard Business Review article Want Collaboration? Accept and Actively Manage Conflict Download Want Collaboration? Accept and Actively Manage Conflictand apply the collaboration and conflict-handling tips contained within that article to describe how you would deal with conflict between parties who need to collaborate more than compete with each other within your proposed non-profit organization.
• Seek out information on the topic of non-profit collaboration that supports your recommendations for dealing the barriers to collaboration in a non-profit setting. Use what you are able to find to make recommendations for future practice paving the way for the nonprofit you are focusing on and how collaboration could help those you hope to serve.
• Summary: Provide a summary of your post including a link between the main idea of each paragraph with the evidence you used to support your ideas and/or recommendations made. For assistance on how to write a good summary, visit https://depts.washington.edu/owrc/Handouts/How%20to%20Write%20a%20Summary.pdfLinks to an external site. .