Now is the time to make 1+1=3
I have had many conversations recently about the challenges non-profit organizations have been, and still are, experiencing. While making a recovery from the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic, many non-profit organizations have experienced challenges such as reduced revenue, higher operating costs, and limited financial reserves to help keep their organization afloat over the past two years. Many have had to cut back on staff or curtail programs.
These challenges come at a time when beneficiaries need social support even more than before, when our climate is going beyond a tipping point, and when the potential impacts of biodiversity loss still cannot be fathomed.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. These challenges have meant that 72% of non-profits (in BC) are spending more time scenario planning. And this enables organizations to identify opportunities that may drive a more significant impact.
How? Strategic partnerships.
I am a big believer that 1+1=3. Despite loving math at school and becoming a total stats geek, this equation is possible in my eyes. And exciting.
Image credit: Claudio Schwarz
Strategic partnerships can mean many things to many people, but to me, it is where two or more organizations can partner to create an even greater impact. Here are a few examples:
The Food Stash Foundation’s entire model is centred around partnerships. They collaborate with 19 food donor organizations to reduce the environmental impact of food waste and redistribute this food through 32 community partners. They also share their warehouse with the other social impact organizations: Susgrainable, Growing Chefs and Cycling Without Age.
Dense Breasts Canada and Know Your Lemons recently formed a partnership, sharing knowledge and platforms to increase awareness of breast self-assessment, risk factors, symptoms, and optimal screening across Europe and North America.
The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Vancouver and Delta Richmond merged to deepen programming, the number of beneficiaries served, and the range of services provided to youth. They formed the Boys and Girls Clubs of South Coast BC in 2011.
The BC Women’s Health Foundation developed a strategic partnership with provincial non-profit Pacific Blue Cross to catalyze impact on women’s health. This partnership facilitated a significant increase in awareness of health inequities women experience and has driven the development of innovative health insurance products at Pacific Blue Cross centred around women’s health needs.
The Canadian Cancer Society and Creative Destruction Lab announced a partnership to launch a unique program for seed-stage companies commercializing cancer research results. This focuses on driving innovation and accelerating the research to practice time-lag.
“It is useful to think about non-profit partnerships overall as the opportunity not to do more with less but to do more with more” La Piana Consulting
A recent non-profit leader recently said to me, “success has many midwives”. I wholeheartedly agree. To tackle some of the problems that face us today, we need to take a collaborative approach. Strategic partnerships are central to this.
I am not so short-sighted that I think strategic partnerships are the only way, but these examples show the potential of the opportunity we have before us.
Let us not compete but partner up. Let us do more with more, together and make 1+1=3.