Essential Questions Nonprofits Must Answer Before Partnering: A Comprehensive Checklist

Cultivating strong organizational partnerships is vital for a nonprofit’s success. However, the complexities of preparing for and navigating effective partnerships can feel overwhelming.

To help bring clarity to the process, we’ve developed a comprehensive checklist of partnership questions that should be asked to set your organization up for success.

With this guide in hand, you’ll be more than ready to forge ahead and develop long-lasting and impactful partnerships.

Let’s get started!

Partnerships are an incredible asset for any nonprofit organization, but there is no question that they can be incredibly challenging. Despite the hardships, partnerships can be the key that unlocks enormous success for your nonprofit and your community.

According to GPA Approved Trainer, Mary Boess:
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“All of us have experience in partnering, collaborating, and being on a team…There are issues, there are barriers, there are challenges involved in working with partnerships or teams…If it's so dang hard, why even do it? I'll tell you why, because working together at any level anywhere in our lives is a good idea. It probably was always a good idea. It's way beyond that. It's what I call an imperative.”

Partnerships are critical—which is why it’s essential to get them right, even before they’ve been formed.

Here are some questions to help prepare you for the challenging but crucial work of collaborating:

Assessing Your Organization’s Capacity

1. What resources can your organization offer?

When preparing to engage in a formal partnership, be sure you have clarity about your own organization’s assets and what you can bring to the table.

• Does your nonprofit or your team have specialized expertise in a specific area?
• Do you manage an innovative program?
• Do you have access to a physical space or spaces that could enhance the work of other organizations?

Knowing what your nonprofit brings to the table will help you understand the role you might play in potential partnerships. Work with your leadership team to get clarity on what resources and tools you are able and willing to share with partners.

2. What are your organization’s boundaries?

Whether it is at the organizational level or one-on-one, boundaries are an important component of any effective collaboration.

Chief Development and Partnership Officer for Food Banks Canada, Tania Little, explains how without firm boundaries, nonprofits can get caught up in the excitement of a new partnership and forget to have internal conversations about limitations and capacity:
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“...It’s really important to start by having an internal philosophical conversation about what collaboration means to your organization. Be practical and specific about what your organization is open to and what your hard limits are.”

Ensuring you have clear boundaries around what your organization is willing to do and what your expectations for partners are will help you avoid potential conflict or confusion down the road.

Defining Mutual Goals

3. What are the short-term and long-term goals of the partnership?

Your nonprofit should never kick-start a partnership just for the sake of having one. You need to have explicit goals and objectives that the potential partnership will help you achieve.

Knowing what you hope to accomplish through a partnership allows you to plan more effectively, while also helping you determine which kinds of organizations are best suited to help you achieve success.

4. How will success be measured?

When you are determining goals and objectives for any partnership, you will also need to define how success will be measured.

Determining the best approach will probably be based on what your short- and long-term goals are. Success can be measured in a number of ways through both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Ensuring Equitable Labor Distribution

5. How will tasks and responsibilities be divided?

A nonprofit partnership, like any collaboration, should be an equitable relationship with clear tasks and responsibilities laid out for both parties.

However, nonprofit organizations are notoriously under capacity, with historic staffing shortages, employee burnout, and funding limitations, making their work more challenging than ever.

Before engaging another organization to develop a potential partnership, be honest about what work your organization can take on and the amount of work you expect of your partner. Laying out explicit expectations ahead of time will set a foundation for an honest and productive relationship going forward.

Formalizing the Partnership

6. Do you have everything in writing?

Before embarking on any partnership, you want to be sure the partnership is formalized and all parties understand their roles. This starts with getting everything in writing.
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Most partnerships are executed through the signing of an MOU or Memorandum of Understanding. An MOU is a formal document that outlines the activities, objectives, and intentions of two parties seeking to forge a partnership.

While not legally binding like a contract would be, MOUs are still important accountability tools for organizations who are working together.

7. How will you handle changes and challenges, and who is responsible to address them?

Even with an MOU, formal partnerships can be tricky to navigate. Problems and misunderstandings will inevitably arise.

Formulating a plan of action for tackling potential challenges and changes to your partnership will help you avoid any major issues or breakdowns in communications.

In a case study from the Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Orfalea Fund notes the importance of considering power dynamics, deep listening, and building trust through rules of engagement:
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“Partnerships involving community-based nonprofits should also cover the balance of power between funder, grantees, and the community being served. A commitment to the principle of “deep listening” encourages better ideas and fewer surprises… Establishing clear rules of engagement does not eliminate the conflict inherent in a relationship, but doing so will mitigate the most damaging effects and help build trust.”

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Planning for Debriefs

8. How often will you review the partnership?

A partnership should always be flexible. Your roles, responsibilities, and expectations do not need to be set in stone. In fact, your partnership will flourish the more nimble you are willing to be.

Reviewing the partnership allows you to reflect on what changes may need to be made to continue advancing.

Discuss with your partner to find an appropriate cadence to meet and debrief that works for both of your teams.

9. What will be the process for debriefing and feedback?

Once you have determined a cadence for reviewing the partnership, you should also determine an official process for feedback and debriefing. This will depend on the preferences and work culture of each partner involved.

It may even require some compromise on debriefing approaches, or a combination of different processes. As with everything, work in tandem with your partner to find the process that works best for both your teams and be willing to change course if you find that it is ineffective.

If you have answers to all the questions above, you are already well on your way to establishing a strong, long-lasting partnership. However, it is also important to understand what type of partnership you are engaging in.

Whether with another nonprofit, a corporation, or with a government entity, the kind of partner you collaborate with will influence how you work with them.

Partnering With Another Nonprofit

When it comes to choosing another nonprofit to work with there are number of key components to take into account:

Community reputation and collaboration: When working with another nonprofit, be sure to consider the other organization’s reputation in the community and their capacity to collaborate. Are they a trusted organization in the community? Do they have complementary resources or expertise that will expand or enhance your own nonprofit’s mission?

Flexibility and decision-making processes: While most nonprofits have fairly similar structures and approaches to work, some organizations are operating with radically different missions, sizes, and scope. To achieve success, you should develop decision-making approaches and plans that honor the values of both organizations.

Gathering information and creating MOUs: Partnering with a nonprofit organization starts with gathering key information about each other. Begin working with them to establish roles and responsibilities which will then be formalized in an MOU.

Partnering With Corporations

Unlike nonprofit organizations, corporate funders or companies have different workplace cultures, communication styles, and objectives that may require shifts in your own working methods and approaches.

Formality and corporate culture: Different companies have varying values and company cultures that influence their attitudes toward work and formal partnerships. This is often quite different from how many nonprofits—especially small, grassroots nonprofits—operate. This sometimes manifests as more formality in communication styles, meeting structure, and behaviors of corporate teams.

Starting with affinity groups: Affinity groups are small internal or external networks in a workplace that bring people together across shared social identities, interests, life experiences, or professional goals. When working with a corporate partner, creating affinity groups can help bridge your teams together and find commonalities you may otherwise have not known existed. This is a way to build trust and identify areas of interest and expertise that could be beneficial to your working relationship going forward.

Non-financial partnerships: While the most common types of corporate partnerships come through corporate grants, donations, or sponsorships, corporations and nonprofits can form non-fiscal relationships as well. Corporations often encourage their employees to spend time volunteering with a nonprofit of their choice. Other companies might donate the use of physical space (such as an office or conference center) or in-kind donations.

Partnering With Public Sector Funders

Many nonprofit organizations exist to supplement or fill gaps in public services. As such, nonprofits commonly partner with public sector funders and entities to supplement their services or manage initiatives on their behalf.

Bureaucratic processes and paperwork: One of the biggest challenges that arises with public funders and partners is bureaucracy. Government agencies are notoriously slow moving and bureaucratic. To kick start a partnership with a public agency, your organization should be prepared to jump through many hoops, providing them with a great deal of paperwork and oversight.

Early contact and preparation: Because government agencies can be bureaucratic and slow moving, connecting with a representative as early as possible is imperative. Before working with a public agency, be sure that your nonprofit is in a state of readiness to receive public funds and meets the expectations associated with public funding and public partnerships.

Transparency and procedural adherence: Since public funders award grants and other funding through tax dollars, partners and grantees are required by law to follow certain processes and procedures when working with government groups. Public partnerships require a significant amount of transparency and very little flexibility when it comes to following specific rules and regulations, which are often governed by law. Be sure to read any Requests for Proposals (RFP) thoroughly, including any footnotes or external attachments and links.

Like we mentioned before, your MOU will be the guidepost for developing a strong and sustainable relationship. Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

Starting Early

Every partnership should have a timeline for when the partnership will start and how long you plan to engage the partner.

Talk to your internal team to ensure you have the capacity to follow your proposed timeline, whether that is a few weeks, a few months, or even longer than a year.

Important note: Public sector partnerships usually require a much longer timeline than a partnership with a corporation or other nonprofit. While nonprofit and corporate partnerships may only need 3-6 months, you will want to prepare at least a year out for any public sector partnerships.

Flexibility in Long-Term Partnerships

A willingness to be flexible is a cornerstone of any great partnership.

To ensure you can be as nimble as possible, be sure to give yourself and your partner flexibility around your outcomes. This could mean writing outcomes and objectives that are more general or measuring success by flexible metrics.

If you begin noticing any issues or changes that you didn’t anticipate, come up with a plan of action ready. To learn more about managing challenging situations in a partnership, check out this guide: Nonprofit Community Partnerships: A Success Guide for 2024.

Specific Elements to Include

In addition to necessary prep and planning, there are a number of specific components every MOU should include:

• Objectives and scope of the partnership: Write into the MOU the specifics around what goals, objectives, and activities you and your partner will engage in.
• Roles and responsibilities: State each partner’s role and specific responsibilities. This will help your team and your partner's team stay on task and hold each other accountable throughout the engagement.
• Communication and decision-making processes: Create detailed and specific communication and decision-making procedures that both teams must adhere to. This includes meeting cadences, types of meetings, preferred times and mode of communication, and designated contacts and decision-making roles between both teams.
• Financial arrangements and resource sharing: Explicitly state in the MOU what the financial responsibilities and expectations are for each team.
• Conflict resolution mechanisms: Be sure to include a plan of action for any potential conflicts. Include how teams would meet to discuss the conflict and the specific person partners should report conflict or issues to.

Termination clauses: There are a number of reasons a partnership may come to a close. You will want to include when and how a relationship should end and what the expectations are for terminating the partnership. Sometimes terminating a partnership is not a bad thing—all good things must come to an end, after all! Having a termination clause will merely prepare you for the eventuality so you can conclude your partnership on good terms.

Engaging in partnerships is a great way to enhance your nonprofit’s work and strengthen your organization. Use the checklists above to determine if you are ready, and if so, to prepare effectively.

Want to learn more about how to cultivate strong and sustaining relationships with other organizations? Instrumentl has a comprehensive library of articles, resources, and tools to help you grow your nonprofit. Check them out today!