Meeting the Moment Series: Collaboration and Solidarity within the Sector
Seasons Greetings,
As we move into the holiday season, we hope you are finding peace and joy. Before we shut down for the year, there has been something on our minds here at Tangelo Tree that we’d like to talk about: Strategic Partnerships.
After the November 5th elections, everything that progressive movements have fought for throughout United States history – including much of the social safety net that is the connective fabric for many of our communities – is at stake. Nonprofit organizations (and funders alike) must step up like never before. In every part of the sector, vital community infrastructure is at risk, and we’re looking at an uphill battle to build safe, welcoming, and thriving communities. In our last newsletter, we wrote about balancing caution and boldness in strategic decision-making when faced with the rise of fascism and white supremacy. One bold decision that your organization might explore is where there might be room for closer collaboration and solidarity within strategic partnerships.
Interested in learning more about strategic partnerships and mergers? Check out this event at Equaspace on January 16! Tangelo Tree will be there talking about Meeting the Moment: Nonprofit Mergers and Partnerships in the 2025 Political Landscape.
Meeting the Moment with Strategic Partnerships
At this moment, we think nonprofit and philanthropy leaders should be thinking about how to preserve nonprofit infrastructure at the field level by working together to better protect community resources. Faced with an unprecedented attack, how can we build stronger and more resilient movements, ensuring the survival of our most essential programs, rather than competing for scarce resources? One answer is through strategic partnerships.
Strategic partnerships can take many forms, from coordinated activities like advocacy and learning, to joint programming and shared services, to mergers and joint ventures. While each of these options has its own considerations, all of them share a goal: to align organizations with shared vision and unique strengths, who can make greater impact together than they could separately.
Exploring a strategic partnership is an opportunity to think creatively about how to sustain impact together. And while many nonprofits are experienced partners, it might be time for your organization to consider a more formal and comprehensive form of partnership, like a merger. At Tangelo Tree, we’ve seen many organizations approach a potential merger as a means of solidarity in fighting for their communities. That’s why we believe that organizations need to be thinking seriously about partnerships that can ensure that indispensable programs can survive and thrive.
How to Get Started
Tangelo Tree’s approach to partnership development centers three key components:
Bring together board and staff from all parties to give thorough consideration to the opportunity.
Set a clear vision for what can be achieved through a potential new partnership and maintain focus on the desired outcomes.
Provide clear, consistent, and timely documentation of identified issues and emerging agreements so that all parties remain on the same page.
To learn more, join us at Equaspace for Meeting the Moment: Nonprofit Mergers and Partnerships in the 2025 Political Landscape on January 16. We’ll be talking about the role of strategic partnerships in the increasingly challenging political and financial environment we find ourselves in. We hope you enjoy your holidays and get much needed rest so we can all come back ready to fight for our communities in 2025.
Happy Holidays!
