Five Mixed Signals Your Dot.Org Partner Sends

Organizations enjoy great reputations entering partnerships. Sometimes changing circumstances, expectations, and assumptions turn good groups into bad collaborators and communicators. Can your organization tell when it's "go" or "no" as a partner?

1) When Your Nonprofit Says: "They take too long to make decision."

Your Nonprofit Partner Hears: "That organization really values efficiency over substance."

Overlooked in translation: Organizations need reassurance that they can maintain focus on their missions and obligations to stakeholders. Each organization brings a particular process, whether by choice or circumstance, to its own ongoing deliberations as well as any new opportunity requiring new external commitments. Advanced knowledge of how decisions best flow within those processes, as well as options for guiding key decision points under a shared frameworks, help ease the burden.

2) When Your Nonprofit Says: "They can't commit to anything. They need a lot of hand holding."

Your Nonprofit Partner Hears: "That organization assigns a lot of tasks."

Overlooked in translation: Partnership starts with credibility, trust, and respect. Acknowledging the benefits their comparative strengths provide, good partners prove accessible and reliable to one another as they communicate their method for meeting shared goals.

3) When Your Nonprofit Says: "They take us for granted."

Your Nonprofit Partner Hears: "That organization sure needs lots of attention..."

Overlooked in translation: Good groups sometimes sacrifice their own needs or self-interest for the sake of a partnership. Groups that readily welcome the effort but contribute nothing also change the nature of partnership into a struggle for turf and credit.

4) When Your Nonprofit Says: "They can't do anything right. We're stuck doing all the work."

Your Nonprofit Partner Hears: "Is this a partnership?" or "This is a partnership?"

Overlooked in translation: Good partner relationships involve advantageous not exploitive activities. Groups that sense risks in sharing success or failure find ways to control (or withhold) the terms of participation, from dictating the resources; to ensuring "lessened impact" or "decreased effectiveness".

5) When Your Nonprofit Says: "They have no idea what they're doing."

Your Nonprofit Partner Hears: "Why, again, do they want to partner with us?"

Overlooked in translation: Embracing the wrong partnerships can damage an organization, especially when the reputation instead of the presentation oversells the idea or undersells the capacity. Groups eager to sell an idea need to explain risks, challenges, and expectations as much as the benefits to potential partners. Groups willing to embrace a wide group of partners need to assess their capacity to serve a high volume of diverse stakeholder needs. Groups easily inclined to join partnerships should ask for clear explanation of their requirements and expectations.

Knowing what to say, and how to listen, can help organizations in their partnership roles as they work towards individual benefit and greater mutual value for those they serve ahead.