Partnership Development Part One: Working with a Joint Committee
Welcome back to our newsletter series giving an insider’s look at what you can expect from working with Michael Anderson Consulting. Last time, we shared our approach to Financial Strategy. Today, we’ll be diving into another one of our core services: Partnership Development.
Getting to a partnership might seem like a simple journey: assess and explore the opportunities, negotiate an agreement, and set the new partnership in motion. But the terrain is unpredictable, and it’s important to have an experienced guide to help set a course, anticipate potential pitfalls, and arrive safely at the destination: a decision that you can be confident is a strategic move for advancing your mission.
We can be that guide, helping nonprofits cover the sometimes unfamiliar ground of partnership development with three process “pillars” that hold the work together, start to finish. In this issue, we’ll focus on the first pillar.
Our MAC Process Pillars
Working with a Joint Committee
Confirming clear project milestones
Conducting a thoughtful and collaborative process
Working With a Joint Committee: Before setting off on any adventure, you need to have the right team. You want a group of people who:
are committed to seeing the journey through,
bring diverse strengths and perspectives,
are willing to build and deepen trust with one another along the way, and
may not always agree but can challenge one another to come up with workable solutions.
This group will model the kind of partnership the organizations can have, and all team members contribute to make the journey a fruitful one.
We begin each partnership development project by bringing together such a team: a Joint Committee of selected staff and board members from each organization. For some clients, this is the start of their journey. Others may have already walked the path on their own and come to a crossroads or sticking point where we join them to help with next steps. Regardless of where we meet up on the road, the Joint Committee plays a valuable role.
Staff have a keen understanding of the day-to-day realities in the operating and service delivery environment, with insights unique to their different functional roles.
Board members bring knowledge about trends in the field, are aware of various community perspectives, and serve as liaison to the rest of their respective boards, which usually have final decision-making authority over formal partnerships.
Together, Joint Committee members shape the vision for the partnership, develop specifics for what it should look like, and present a recommendation for action.
“(Michael Anderson Consulting brought an) ability to lead all through a process none of us had ever experienced.”— Adele Della Torre, DDS, Ready Set SmileOne of the first tasks of the Joint Committee is to help to co-create the partnership development process itself by defining key project milestones. But we’ll dig into that treasure next time, fellow adventurers!
If you’re eager to start your own partnership development journey, contact us and let’s have a conversation.