Foundations have a penchant for collaborations. As Children’s PressLine program director Katina Paron told Youth Media Reporter, foundations “love partnerships because it saves on resources for them.” But finding the right group to work with isn’t easy, especially when many nonprofits want to partner only with organizations sharing their own beliefs and missions.
But that’s going about it all wrong, argues Michael C. Gilbert on Nonprofit Online News. “The great secret of successful collaboration is this: The only agreement you have to have is on what you are all going to do,” he says. “You have to agree on actions. You don’t have to bring the visions and missions of your organizations into alignment…The less tightly we hold to our narrow organizational identities … the sooner we will forge the movements and coalitions needed to truly save the world from the forces of fear and greed.”