Using the Value of Your Partnerships in Grants

Do you know the value of your partnerships?  And if you do, have you considered how to use them to your best advantage? Here are four ideas that demonstrate your collaborative nature:

1. Case Statement and Grant Requests

Consider using their value in written documents you use to seek funds. Here is a before and after example.

Before

We have several referrals partners who work with people to improve their housing situation. They include Habitat for Humanity, Goodwill GoodHomes, Royal Venice and the Sarasota Office Housing and Community Development.

After

We have several referrals partners who work with people improve their housing. Every year, we make and document over 300 referrals. Referral partners and the estimated value of these referrals to customers who receive them include Habitat for Humanity (100 referrals with a value of over $500,000); Goodwill GoodHomes (50 referrals with a value of $50,000), Royal Venice (20 referrals with a value of $5,000), the Sarasota Office Housing and Community Development (remaining referrals with a value of $20,000). In addition to the outcomes we provide directly, we help other people with housing needs to receive about $575,000 in value, yearly.

2. Increase Your Esteem

Develop a “trade balance sheet” to identify the value of your partnerships. Include the value provided to your organization, the partner organization, customers and the community. This will help you to recognize the worth of your current partnerships and make decision about future ones based on their potential value.

3. Annual Reports

Another place to use the value is in your annual report. Here is a suggested addition:

In addition to the outcomes we provide directly, we participate in a number of partnerships and collaborations. These help us to further our mission, help more customers and support the community. While the value of these remains difficult to determine, we document known results and conservatively estimate their value at over one million dollars. Our customers, other organizations and the community receive most of these benefits, others remains with us (i.e., reduced marketing costs.) Here is a list of our primary partnerships and their approximate value, etc.

4. Conversations

Finally, don’t forget to use the value in your conversations.

Newcomer: “You should be doing more partnerships.”

You: “We’d love to engage in more productive partnerships. We already create over $1

million dollars in community value with our partnerships. What do you have in mind?”

For more answers, check out this Nonprofit  CEO Library.

For solutions delivered to your inbox, sign up for Karen’s CEO Solutions.