Examples of Successful Nonprofit Partnerships

You’ve probably heard that partnerships are great for nonprofit development and furthering your mission. Yet, the term “partnership” can sometimes feel a bit ambiguous—what does a nonprofit partnership look like in practice? What does it involve?

The truth is there are lots of different kinds of nonprofit partnership models. In this article, we are going to highlight a few of the most common by sharing 10 real-life examples of successful nonprofit partnerships. We will explain how they worked, why they were successful, and what you can learn from each.

By the end, you’ll have a better idea of how you can collaborate with like-minded organizations to help your nonprofit increase its impact and reach.

Let’s get started!

Many nonprofit leaders are hesitant to enter into partnerships. It is true that partnerships can be intimidating, time consuming, and even confusing at times.

Yet, the benefits to partnering with other organizations can be huge, such as:

• Increased credibility and reputation
• Shared resources
• Access to administrative, professional, or technical expertise
• Expanded program/project reach
• Pooled staff and resources
• Increased number of volunteers
• Greater impact in your community and beyond
• Increased chances of grant success

‍

Ultimately, partnerships help nonprofits expand their audience, enhance their engagement and voice, and even increase their fundraising efforts to grow their impact.

If you are interested in learning more about how partnerships can increase your grants success, make sure to check out our webinar with Maryn Boess, Partnership Pays! 5 Ways Partnering Builds More Grants Success, Faster.

Like we mentioned earlier, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to nonprofit partnerships. What kind of partnership you should pursue will depend on your organization’s unique needs and position.

In this next section, we are going to share ten different examples of nonprofit partnerships and explain what you can learn from each.

Coordinated action is one of the most popular types of nonprofit partnerships.
‍

When a nonprofit organization collaborates with one or more organizations to achieve a common goal, it is known as coordinated action.

Example of Coordinated Action: Walmart and Sam’s Club recently partnered up with Feeding America for their 11th annual Fight Hunger. Spark Change campaign. For every participating product purchased in store or online at Walmart.com or SamsClub.com, one to five meals were donated to help fight hunger in the U.S. Shoppers could also round up their total purchase amounts when checking out to donate to the campaign. According to Feeding America, to date the campaign has helped secure nearly 1.9 billion meals for local food banks across the country.

What you can learn from this partnership: Partnering with other organizations can help you reach new audiences and engage untapped donors. This broader reach provides you with the opportunity to further your mission with increased support and awareness.

If your nonprofit is looking to change policies on a local, regional, or national level, a joint advocacy partnership might be right for you.
‍

Joint advocacy partnerships occur when you and a partnering organization advocate together for a shared social issue or cause within your community.

Example of Joint Advocacy: The nonprofit organization Save the Children partnered with the global for-profit company GSK to advocate for universal healthcare coverage. Although the ultimate goal has not yet been reached, the joint advocacy partnership has helped move legislation in Burkina Faso, Africa, to remove user fees for pregnant women and children under five years old and has received strong support from global pharma industry associations.

What you can learn from this partnership: Joint advocacy can help you better amplify your voice for a cause you care deeply about while also saving time, resources, and money.

Some nonprofit partnerships are based on a mutual desire to improve learning and development within their communities.
‍

Cross-organizational learning and community convening is all about learning with and from your partners. This could be through networking opportunities, conferences, webinars, or quarterly events. The main goal is to learn with and from one another.

Example of Cross-Organizational Learning and Community Convening: The Philadelphia Chapter of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy and The Philadelphia Foundation partnered to found an initiative called INTERGENERATION. This new venture focuses specifically on collaborative learning, knowledge, and support of leadership throughout the community. Since 2011, this cross-organizational learning and community convening partnership has both elevated and strengthened leaders throughout the Philadelphia region.

What you can learn from this partnership: Strategic community partnerships such as these give nonprofits the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of issues relevant to their mission and put those learnings into action.

Some nonprofits look to share administrative functions with other organizations to save both time and money.
‍

Administrative consolidation involves sharing administration functions with another organization to increase operational efficiency.

Example of Administrative Consolidation: In 2000, two museums in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the Creative Discovery Museum (CDM) and the Hunter Museum of American Art, consolidated with an aquarium. Both struggled to effectively serve their community and CDM in particular was facing a deficit. Hunter Museum of American Art also struggled with its operational infrastructure. The solution was an administrative consolidation with the Tennessee Aquarium. This partnership saved both museums nearly $4 million and generated an astounding revenue of more than $1 million.

As a result of this administrative consolidation, the museums were able to cut costs and broaden their reach.

What you can learn from this partnership: Sharing administrative functions with another organization can help increase your nonprofit’s organizational capacity and efficiency. It provides you with a great opportunity to save money by consolidating necessary resources.

Nonprofits also sometimes partner with other organizations through fiscal sponsorships.
‍

Fiscal sponsorships are when nonprofit organizations sponsor smaller organizations without 501(c)3 status so that they can receive grants and donations to fund both short-term and long-term projects. Within these partnerships, nonprofits typically extend their official tax-exempt status to the partnering organizations as well as offer other administrative services.

Any organization with a recognized and verified 501c(3) nonprofit status with the IRS is eligible to be a fiscal sponsor.

Example of a Fiscal Sponsorship: The Ecology Center is a nonprofit organization in Berkeley, California that acts as the fiscal sponsor for multiple other initiatives, including the Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative, the Indigenous Permaculture Project, and more.

According to the Ecology Center, “As a fiscally sponsored project, a group can use the Ecology Center’s 501(c)3 nonprofit status for fundraising purposes. In addition, the Ecology Center provides insurance and a wide range of administrative services that allow a fledgling project to focus on their programmatic goals while meeting their legal requirements.” In return, the Ecology Center charges an administrative fee to its fiscally sponsored projects of 10-15%. It’s a win-win!

What you can learn from this partnership: Becoming a fiscal sponsor gives you a way to generate revenue while also supporting like-minded initiatives in your community. Many new and small organizations also seek out these partnerships so that they can focus their energy on executing their programs without worrying about becoming an official 501(c)3.

Joint programming is another common type of nonprofit partnership.
‍

Joint programming gives your nonprofit the opportunity to partner with another organization to successfully design, implement, and launch a new program together.

Example of Joint Programming: In 2019, Purina and RedRover partnered to launch the Purple Leash Project to “increase the number of pet-friendly domestic violence shelters nationwide and spread awareness about this vital issue.” Through this Purple Leash Project, RedRover is able to advocate for change and serve the needs of domestic violence survivors and their pets by:

• Awarding grants to help shelters become pet-friendly.
• Engaging volunteers to help create pet-friendly spaces at shelters.
• Increasing awareness of the issue.
• Providing training and resources to domestic violence shelters.

What you can learn from this partnership: Through joint programming partnerships, nonprofits can collaborate with other organizations to develop and execute new projects that accomplish a shared goal. These partnerships can help your nonprofit enter a new geographic area, obtain greater access to funding for a program, or offer additional services to your current clients.

If your nonprofit organization is looking to start a revenue-generating program, then a joint earned income venture might be the partnership for you.
‍

Joint earned income ventures give nonprofits the opportunity to partner with other organizations to launch a revenue-generating program or activity that supports a common mission.

Example of a Joint Earned Income Venture: Each year, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation partners with Kendra Scott to raise funding for lifesaving cancer research. Within this partnership, Kendra Scott develops a collection of jewelry items that are available for purchase and a portion of each sale benefits BCRF, with almost $2 million donated to date.

‍What you can learn from this partnership: Joint earned income ventures can be a win-win for your nonprofit and other for-profit companies. In this example, partnering with BCRF reflects positively on Kendra Scott’s brand and opens them up to a broader audience while the foundation benefits from the revenue-generating jewelry sales.

Affinity groups are a great way for nonprofit professionals to assemble around a common interest or cause. They may be organized by a specific issue, function, or geographic focus.
‍

Affinity groups give your nonprofit the opportunity to network with like-minded people and increase support for your community work.

Example of an Affinity Group: The global affinity group, International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, brings together organizations from all over the world who share a common goal of advocating for and funding Indigenous-led initiatives and organizations.

The organizations involved may be varied in their nature, makeup, and purpose. For example, their member highlights include the American Jewish World Service, the Disability Rights Fund, and the International Indigenous Women’s Forum. Yet, this group shares one purpose and impact, which is to do philanthropic work that focuses on Indigenous Peoples all over the world.

The impact of this partnership has been significant—affiliate partners have donated millions to indigenous peoples, advocated for their rights, and created funds to support indigenous groups in specific areas of the world.

What you can learn from this partnership: As you can see from the example above, the International Funders for Indigenous Peoples connected groups from all over the world who share the same goal of increasing awareness and money for indigenous peoples. Joining an affinity group can help you network with like-minded individuals, learn new things, and get connected to resources to help you achieve your organization’s goals.

Many philanthropic organizations may pull their resources together to form either a coalition, consortium, or an association. These partnerships are quite similar:

• A coalition works towards a specific political goal or social change in the community.
• A consortium serves the interests of the organizations that belong to the group.
• An association serves the interests of the members who belong to the association.

Example of a Consortium: The Smithsonian Affiliations program is a consortium of several museums and cultural organizations from across the United States. There is a list of members on their website, which include various cultural or ethnographic museums, gardens, space centers, history centers, and even aquariums. Through this partnership, the consortium members receive numerous benefits, including:

• Access to traveling exhibitions
• Educational resources
• Professional development opportunities

What you can learn from this partnership: Through consortiums, associations, and coalitions, you can strengthen your collective impact. These partnerships could help your nonprofit gain access to educational resources and professional development, as well as help you enhance your offerings and services.

Strategic restructuring is probably the most formal type of partnership we have discussed and can be accomplished in three different ways:

• Joint venture: the participating organizations further an agreed upon goal by combining parts of their individual administrative, programmatic, or advocacy roles into an entirely new, jointly-controlled corporation.
• Parent-subsidiary structure: the participating organizations integrate their administrative and programmatic services to help them be more efficient in their services—but the parent company holds a controlling interest over the subsidiary company.
• Merger or acquisition: a merger involves two organizations combining to create something totally new, while an acquisition is when one company absorbs the other organization (with the first company keeping its original identity).

Example of Strategic Restructuring: Nonprofits have considered mergers as a successful way to increase their impact, and this was seen when United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) merged with Seguin Services to create a new jointly-controlled organization called UCP Seguin of Greater Chicago. Merging was a great solution—UCP was able to take advantage of the massive size of Seguin Services, yet UCP was more widely recognized across the nation. The merger resulted in a successful nonprofit agency that services individuals with disabilities across metropolitan Chicago and beyond.

What you can learn from this partnership: Strategic restructuring can be a great way for nonprofits to further their missions more effectively. These partnerships could increase your services, geographic reach, and both internal and external growth.

We hope these examples shared above can help you decide which of the many types of nonprofit partnerships may be right for your organization.

In the end, it all depends on your nonprofit’s unique needs and how your mission and goals align with the potential partnering organization. Whichever type of collaboration you choose, partnerships are a great way for your nonprofit to grow and make a stronger impact in your community.

For a more detailed look into the different kinds of nonprofit partnerships and how they work, check out this guide: The Types of Nonprofit Partnerships: Models and Approaches. Enjoy!