Presented by The Drucker Foundation "Austin has uncovered the common elements and key strategies that make for effective collaborations.... In The Collaboration Challenge, he illuminates these key lessons for all leaders, and makes it possible for each of us to meet the collaboration challenge." --Frances Hesselbein, chairman of the board of governors, The Drucker Foundation, and John C. Whitehead, founder, The John C. Whitehead Fund for Not-for-Profit Management, Harvard Business School "Austin has performed a valuable service for nonprofit organizations and their corporate partners by illuminating the dynamics of successful relationships. His useful book deserves to be widely read by leaders in both sectors concerned about increasing the effectiveness of their social action agenda." --Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School, author of World Class and Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Frontiers of Management "The entire nonprofit sector has been searching for the expertise and tools this book provides. Nothing else like it exists." --Bill Shore, executive director of Share-Our-Strength and author of The Cathedral Within and Revolution of the Heart In these complex times, when no organization can succeed alone, nonprofits and businesses are embracing collaboration for mutual benefits. Nonprofits are partnering with businesses to further their missions, develop resources, strengthen programs, and thrive in the competitive world. Companies are also discovering that alliances with nonprofits generate significant rewards: increased customer preference, improved employee morale, greater brand identity, stronger corporate culture, and higher innovation. In this timely and insightful book, James E. Austin provides a practical framework for understanding how traditional philanthropic relationships can be transformed into powerful strategic alliances. He offers advice and lessons drawn from the experiences of numerous collaborations, including Timberland and City Year; Starbucks and CARE; Georgia-Pacific and The Nature Conservancy; MCI WorldCom and The National Geographic Society; Reebok and Amnesty International; and Hewlett-Packard and the National Science Resource Center. Readers will learn how to: * Find and connect with high-potential partners * Ensure strategic fit with the partner's mission and values * Generate greater value for each partner and society * Manage the partnering relationship effectively Click here to read Chapter 8, Guidelines for Collaborating Successfully.

Meeting the Collaboration Challenge Workbook: Developing Strategic Alliances Between Nonprofit Organizations and Businesses by Drucker Peter

Good to start your mind thikning, lots of reading, but not ground breaking
Issue of non profit organizations and business partnership is discussed from perspective of what strategies and knowledge is necessary to achieve effective collaboration. Author leads through stages of developing this collaborative partnership and provides tools to measure both success and its potential. I wish author would include more material on collaboration for companies from similar industry. In order to get a broader understanding of other type of partnerships, one chapter about that would have been a good idea to include in the next book revisions.

Review by Beth Brown

We all want to partner. We all speak of collaborative spirit. But when the rubber meets the road, what does collaboration really entail, and what's the difference between a deal and an alliance?

James Austin breaks down the notion of collaboration into a must-read users guide for any organizational leader embarking on a collaboration. And although the book is geared toward corporations and their nonprofit partners, many of the lessons are universal and can be applied to any individual or organization considering a joint venture, be it a marriage or cross-sector alliance.

Austin notes the role serendipity and personal relationships plays in introducing partnerships-a conversation in a coffee shop or during a long plane ride-often sparking the "ah-ha" moment leading to the realization that a corporation and a nonprofit have what Austin calls mission mesh. The organizations' leaders can see how their visions' core competencies can make a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Through in-depth and candid examples from partnerships, including those between Starbucks and CARE, Timberland and City Year, and American Eagle Outfitters and Jumpstart, Austin chronicles the necessary, and often awkward, stages businesses and nonprofits pass through in order to become strategic partners.

Austin has a healthy skepticism for the ease of collaboration. He often likens it to dating, and as with a courting pair from different countries, he sees the cultural and values barriers between the sectors as the greatest obstacle to collaboration. The corporate leaders he interviews are open about the fact that their bottom line is to make a profit and a partnership can often assist their public relations efforts.

For the nonprofits, there is greater accountability held when working with corporations, and sometimes the social value nonprofits generate is not easily quantifiable. In addition, each can be associated with the mistakes of the other. However, the payoff is that one can also be associated with the success of the other and be exposed to new audiences-potential customers for the business, future partners for the nonprofit.

One interesting observation Austin makes is the inherent noncollaborative nature of a philanthropic relationship (it is the lowest on the collaborative totem poll). Although he does not single out foundations, he characterizes the giving of money by one organization to another as an exchange of resources for warm fuzzy feelings. Among philanthropic relationships, the venture philanthropy approach seems to offer a model of partnership similar in the level of engagement to the examples mentioned in Austin's book.

The details from the examples and extensive quotes of philanthropic and business leaders, such as Aaron Lieberman of Jumpstart and Jeff Swartz of Timberland, give the reader an insider's view of what went into the partnership. At the same time, the book is filled with simple big-picture truths such as "serious relationships, organizational and interpersonal, should not be rushed." That's a helpful notion to remember with everyone so eager to jump on the partnership bandwagon. Austin reminds us that having and keeping a partnership is not the end all-adding value is the goal and sustainability does not necessarily equal effectiveness.

Austin's greatest contributions to fostering collaboration are the tools the book includes: questions, checklists, continuums-cheat sheets for collaboration-that would be an asset to any leader considering partnership. In addressing the questions he poses, Austin leads potential collaborators through the development of a partnership purpose.

The final chapter of the book contains a complete conceptual framework for collaboration that seems universally applicable to any partnership. These "Seven C's of Collaboration" include Connection with Purpose and People, Clarity of Purpose, Congruency of Mission, Creation of Value, Communication Between Partners, Continual Learning, and Commitment to the Partnership.

So let's all take a cross-sector breath before claiming our next partner and take the messages of James Austin's book to heart and practice.

---------Beth Brown is the director of Public Policy and Emerging Issues at the Council on Foundations.

The issues covered by the book are very topical. Strategic alliances have become increasingly important to organizational survival. In addition, some organizations, including businesses, recognize that, for the long haul, they need to be in closer harmony with deeper aspirations of their customers, employees and shareholders. Others oppose such approaches as a dangerous temptation to fuzzy thinking and conflicted agendas. Yet others view the non-economic motives of their constituents as only relevant to marketing campaigns or high-minded mission statements.

This practical book addresses these opportunities and challenges systematically and with insight. It doesn't push quick fixes or high-risk strategies, but rather presents processes and analytical frameworks that support sequential acts of collaboration.

The author is a good teacher and effectively uses case studies to support his recommendations. His approach is practical and recognizes the reality that every relationship involves an exchange of value. His emphasis is on having clear agendas and then searching together for common outcomes built around relative strengths.