I have spent many years developing long-term partner relationships between nonprofits and between nonprofits and government agencies. In recent years Aligning Visions has been honored to be invited to evaluate some partnership programs, write the content for a web site on partnering, and help organizations think through their partnership goals. Aligning Visions will work with you to clarify:
- Why do you want to partner? What does your prospective partner hope to get out of it? Are these goals aligned?
- What can you do to improve your ability to partner well?
- Who should you partner with?
- What are some tried and true ways for effectively structuring a partnership?
- What are some best practices for effectively implementing a partnership?
- What measures can help you evaluate the partnership?
- How do you successfully end or renegotiate a partnership?
Effective partnerships are a much needed tool for conservation organizations. They are energizing, full of learning opportunities, and can lead to much greater levels of conservation impact. Recently I had the opportunity to help a group of volunteers and staff members from many different marine science-based organizations, pool their talents and ideas to create a networked organization – MigraMAR! By combining their skills and aligning their efforts the partners hope to achieve more than they could by operating independently and have a far greater impact at breaking through policy barriers.
Paquita, I want to thank you for all the patience and hard work. You’ve held our hand and brought us to this point over the last few months. It’s been an incredible journey, and I hope that over the next few years we can show that as a network we can respond and grow as the MigraMAR strategic plan outlines. Beyond that, I really appreciate all the advice and feedback outside of the official workshop stuff.
Alex Hearn, Founding Member of MigraMAR, Professor of Biology, University of San Francisco de Quito
I was also privileged to help document one of the most important capacity building tools on nonprofit partnerships:
Paquita’s long history of championing effective partnerships for The Nature Conservancy, documenting learning from partnership activities in her many publications, and promoting capacity building with us and with many other organizations, all were indispensable and made her uniquely qualified for pulling together the best practices for our Conservation Partnership Center. We were delighted to engage Paquita Bath of Aligning Visions, who did an extraordinary job of compiling a vast quantity of raw material into a cohesive whole. Paquita is a bloodhound; she unearthed resources in the unlikeliest places to ensure that the Center is truly comprehensive. If anything has been omitted, it surely is not for lack of sleuthing on Paquita’s part. Paquita then undertook the Herculean task of putting all of the material she found into sensible order, and giving it flow and cohesion. She jumped eagerly into the fray to lead this project from the initial formation of the Conservancy’s Global Partnership Practice Network, and she never flagged during her six month consultancy – keeping all of us on track and facilitating a truly collaborative group effort. Paquita’s long history of championing effective partnerships for The Nature Conservancy, documenting learning from partnership activities in her many publications, and promoting capacity building with us and with many other organizations, all were indispensable and made her uniquely qualified for pulling together the best practices presented here.
Olivia Millard, Director of Global Partnerships, The Nature Conservancy