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Sometimes nonprofits exist inside a vacuum. This is not conducive for sustainability, let alone the chance of survival. One reason for this segregation, that I often hear, is that one thinks another nonprofit organization will ‘compete’ with them and limit their ability to obtain funding. Another reason is that many nonprofit staff and executives can never seem to get out of the office to meet with potential partners.

The thing is, partnerships are resources. Partnerships can literally make the difference between your nonprofit being able to pay the bills or have to shut down. There are different types of partnerships, but all are extremely valuable.

• Comprehensive Service Partners
• Corporate / Funder / Donor Partnerships
• Beneficiary Partnerships

Comprehensive Services Partners

Engaging with a healthy number of partnerships that offer comprehensive services in relation to your nonprofit is really important as they enable you to share knowledge, training, lessons learned, and tangible resources.

For example, if you are part of a nonprofit that serves domestic violence survivors, then some partners may be the Police Department, Department of Public Health and Social Services, Women Infants and Children (WIC), the hospital, local clinics that serve women, psychiatrist offices, other nonprofit shelters, the courts, Department of Corrections, daycare centers, employment agencies, shelters, community colleges, and so forth.

Other nonprofit organizations could include victim advocate peers, substance abuse centers for women, human trafficking nonprofits, foster homes, public legal counsel, and so forth. Basically, any other entity that you could leverage for support or, on the flip-side, that you may receive referrals from. Your job is really to know all the ins and outs about ALL other organizations that could provide comprehensive services for your beneficiaries.

For instance, if a survivor of domestic violence enters your facility, but all you offer is a three-day emergency shelter, you would immediately begin to find longer-term shelter, support for the courts (if needed), childcare, or school support if the survivor arrived with children, and so forth. Just knowing a phone number or e-mail address from a website may not be enough.

It really is essential to develop relationships with these organizations so you have a system down to streamline these services. Your relationship should be to the point where you know the point of contact on a first-name basis, and understand all of their services, including eligibility. Nonprofits should be excellent at referrals to other services.  I have witnessed this first-hand, where a family came into an organization with five children, and immediately partners were called and shelter was arranged within a matter of hours. This is wonderful… but can be rare.

Make sure you are attending coalition meetings and know who the other players are in your field. This can be the difference between helping your beneficiaries or not. A way to build these relations