Nonprofit Performance 360 Issue 12

JEFFREY MAGEE

Top Questions for Public-Private Partnerships

The marketplace has changed and so have the expectations of collaborators and benefactors. Here are the top five questions in the mindset of a public-private partnership stakeholder today. If you do not address these issues, partners will leave and never return. What is the ROI frommy partnership with you? This may not pertain to financial expectations. Do not make assumptions about the prospective partner as you prepare your information. Identify the key stakeholders in your prospect and have a clear conversation as to how they will measure their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of success, acceptability or failure in their impending experience with you. If you fail to hit these targets, the partnership may not renew. While you may have thought you had a great relationship, they may be disappointed, and the easy way to retreat is to not renew. They may not tell you in an exit interview what their real reasons are for their departure. What is their avatar? In marketing, an avatar is a descriptor of a qualified prospect; it’s an ideal match for what you have and who would best benefit from your deliverable. As a nonprofit, you are selling a deliverable, so have clarity of what your avatar(s) are, as that will lead you to better and more aligned public-private partnerships to approach, align with, and serve.

Sometimes people partner with you because of you and not your organization. While this may be good initially, it may come back and bite you at the end of the partnership’s budget cycle. Just because I can, does that mean I will? If you see a potential benefactor or partner’s name everywhere with nonprofits like yours, it does not mean they automatically want to play with you. In fact, you may not want them! If you can easily identify a possible partner to approach, chances are everyone else can, and you are merely another beggar for a handout in their stack of options. Why should we consider YOU? A few key drivers trigger good public-private partnerships and move people to partner with you and become advocates for you. Start by having clarity in your • Driving values • Core purpose/vision/your why • Clear and concise mission statement • Aligned résumés of your key leadership team to you and your values, purpose, vision, and mission statement Now let these data points become your road map to your online research of prospective avatar partners, as you review their websites, annual reports (chairman/CEO letters), etc. Look for alignment continued on page 42

SynerVision Leadership .org I 19