Watch the video posted on this page and you'll see NKU's Corbett string-quartet-in-residence playing “The Art of the Fugue Contrapunctus 1” by J. S. Bach. Their playing is a metaphor for the power of collaboration. The piece begins with a single violinist playing, and as it progresses the other three musicians join in. The beauty – and the strength – of the music is amplified.
So it is with nonprofits. Alone, each of the more than 10,000 nonprofits
(INC State of Nonprofits Report) in Greater Cincinnati is doing good work. Meaningful work. But when some of those nonprofits join hands, their power to be transformative in the community is, like the quartet's music, amplified.
The Institute for Nonprofit Capacity can facilitate collaboration among nonprofits in a number of ways:
- To collaborate effectively, each partner needs a fitness level, and INC services can help with those. For a quick self-assessment, take our fitness test.
- Our Breakthrough Breakfast series is designed as a series of education workshops with capacity-building experts. Register online for an upcoming session. They are inexpensive time-efficient (90 minutes, with breakfast) and offer an excellent networking opportunity with other nonprofits in our region.
- NKU service learning classes can help your nonprofit with core capacity needs. Check the catalog or contact us if you have a need that you don't see met and we'll try to match your need with an NKU service learning class.
- IT assessment also can be key to collaboration. And shared IT services often is a good starting point for building a collaborative backshop. NKU's Virtual CIO program can help evaluate the possibilities for you. (Note: A full assessment is a for-fee service).
- Collaboration among nonprofits is a hot topic nationally. Here is some recommended reading:
A report on nonprofit collaboration in Minneapolis:
A report on nonprofit collaboration in Boston:
In the end, collaboration is not easy, as one academic report bluntly spells out:
“There are significant challenges, including overcoming turf and territoriality issues, identifying and addressing differences in organizational norms and procedures, expanding communication both within and across organizations, coping with tensions concerning organizational autonomy and differential power relations, maintaining community accountability and identifying appropriate community representatives, and managing logistical issues such as program monitoring and time-consuming nature of establishing, and maintaining multi-organizational partnerships.”
-Lois M. Takahashi, University of California at Los Angeles, and Gayla Smutny, Clearwater Research, Inc.
But if the challenge can be daunting, the results can be rewarding – and transformative for the community, as we've seen in our community with
STRIVE and other collaborative efforts.
One final thought: On the INC homepage you will see the image below of many hands. It was designed for INC by NKU art professor Hans Schellhas, and it is meant to convey a simple message of many hands working together for the common good. INC exists to help make that happen.
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