Government and Nonprofit Partnerships: Tackling Challenges Collaboratively

Public/private partnerships are growing in frequency, as a way to tackle regional challenges and serve community needs. But how do government and nonprofit partnerships actually work to benefit one another?

Outlined below, we showcase the benefits associated with government and nonprofit partnerships, and how to structure funds, performance data and programmatic accountability for success.

Multi-Sector Partnerships Benefit All Parties

Public and private sector partnerships are not a new concept, and have been growing in frequency as regional budgets are cut, but demand for social services remains high.

Public service needs and challenges are difficult to address in silos. As such, pooling resources through strategic partnerships can translate into higher quality and more cost-effective programs. Government funding can play a pivotal factor in nonprofit success, while the government can rely on nonprofits to fill gaps in services that they are ill equipped to provide.

Successfully Manage Funding, Processes and Reporting

When delivering services collaboratively, both government entities and nonprofits must be held accountable for programmatic performance and sound reporting processes for any funding that they receive. Here are a few considerations:

• Pitch collaboration—combined staff, knowledge and resources—as an advantage to gain grantor interest in your project or initiative.
• Outline the responsibilities of prime and sub-recipients. Detail goals, milestones and planned deliverables for a clear picture of how funds will be spent.
• Correlate financial expenditures to specific activities within projects using internal identifiers. Compare spend against performance indicators.
• Regularly monitor prime and sub-recipient performance via internal reports, to ensure all parties are on pace to meet overall program goals and grant compliance requirements.
• Implement grant management software to streamline processes and communications, centralize data and documents, and automate data collection and report creation.

Does your grant management software meet public sector requirements? Download our checklist to find out, “Public Sector: Grant Software Vendor Requirements.”