Missed the Roundtable?

Roundtable topic Community Foundations as Catalysts for Nonprofit Collaboration

Across the country, community foundations are seeing opportunities for nonprofits to amplify their reach, stability, and efficiency by joining forces—whether through shared programs, back-office consolidation, co-location, joint ventures, or full mergers.

Yet the path from idea to implementation is rarely linear. Differences in mission, culture, identity, mindsets, operational capacity, and stakeholder expectations can all complicate collaborative efforts. The emotional attachments nonprofits have to individual organizational identity and how they’ve “always done the work” can be just as influential as financial or strategic considerations.

That’s why I recently teamed up with sector leaders Michael Anderson (Founder of Tangelo Tree Consulting) and Jill Carpenter (President and CEO at Community Foundation Alliance) to explore when, if, and how community foundation leaders can catalyze these kinds of collaborations among the nonprofits they support.

Through a moderated conversation among practitioners experienced in nonprofit partnerships, leadership transitions, organizational readiness, and the human psychology of collaboration, participants examined what makes cross-organizational partnerships succeed or stall—and what grantmakers can do to encourage thoughtful, mission-driven collaboration rather than reactive consolidation.

This was a no-sales, just-insights session focused on the real-world challenges and opportunities of inter-organizational collaboration.

If nonprofit collaboration is on your radar and you'd like to see what we covered, I’d be happy to share the recording. Just send me a note at admin@debmashek.com!