Friday, May 18, 2012

Who are our Partners?

This was the topic of discussion at our webinar meeting last week.  Most of us partner with other groups or individuals on some level.  If you represent a friends group or foundation, your reserve is one of your primary partners. Other partnerships may include; volunteers, schools, businesses, other non-profits and government groups as well. 

While the focus of the discussion was on WHO we partner with – we did discuss a few tips on how to develop successful partnerships*.  Here are a few…
  1. Approach your partners with information on how YOU can help them.
  2. Think about long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.
  3. Consider partnerships with groups that are already supporting your organization/reserve.
We also discussed ideas on ways NERRA can help create or expand relationships on a national or regional level.  Please feel free to contact me or Rebecca Roth if you have any ideas you would like to share.  We welcome your input!

If you have an example of a successful partnership (or lessons learned from a not-so-successful partnership) that might be interesting or beneficial to other friends and foundations, please feel free to write about it here. 

“A partnership is an arrangement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests,,,, Partnerships are also common regardless of and among sectors. Non-profit, religious, and political organizations, may partner together to increase the likelihood of each achieving their mission and to amplify their reach.”  - Wikipedia

* Thanks to Kay and Walter for emailing us all the interp newsletter with some great points!