Collaborating in Partnership

Working in collaboration is an effective way to make things happen. Collaborations encourage organizations and individuals to value and respect one another’s work and to pool their resources in order to strengthen organizational capacity. Collaboration can help connect girls to the issues and realities affecting their lives through community involvement, events, volunteering and activism. In turn this can also raise the profile of issues facing young women within their broader communities.

Together we can do things that cannot be done alone! There are many ways to work together to make girls’ program a reality. Examples of possible collaborations could be with existing organizations, schools or community centres. Sometimes, programs that operate without organizational status may need to work in partnership to access financial support for projects. For information on Organizational Structures see the Organizational Structures section.

We have learned that it is beneficial to work out a partnership agreement in advance. This creates clarity and a structure that you can fall back on. A partnership agreement will help to explain and simplify underlying assumptions and will help to guide you and your partner organization when it is time to make important decisions.

Partnership Agreement Checklist

Some things to consider when defining partnership agreements are:

• What is the purpose of working together? Be sure to establish clarity.

• What are the guiding principles for working together?

• Do you share similar goals?

• Who is bringing what to the table?

• Establish roles, responsibilities, accountabilities, and a decision-making mechanism to support the process of the collaboration. For example: how will decisions be made, who holds the responsibility for what, and what resources are people bringing?

• What is the structure for communication? (How/when/where will you meet?)

• How will the resources be managed and accounted for?

• How will the program support mentorship and skill building opportunities?

• How will you evaluate how the project is coming together?

• How do both parties benefit from the partnership?

For a Sample Partnership Agreement Template see Appendix 1.