Planning for Sustainability: Sharing Positions and Other Resources
Learn why you might want to enter into a sharing arrangement and when it makes sense to try to create a shared position or other resource.
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WHY SHARE POSITIONS OR OTHER RESOURCES?
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WHEN SHOULD AN ORGANIZATION CONSIDER A SHARING ARRANGEMENT?
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DIFFERENT TYPES OF SHARING ARRANGEMENTS
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DIFFERENT TYPES OF RESOURCES THAT CAN BE SHARED
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HOW TO CREATE AND MANAGE A SHARED POSITION OR OTHER RESOURCE
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COMMON BARRIERS TO SHARING, AND HOW TO ADDRESS THEM
A community health clinic offers free counseling space to a domestic violence prevention program. A job training program offers services to participants in a community development agency in return for time for its participants with the other agency's housing counselor.A child protection agency lets a grassroots anti-child abuse initiative use its copier.
Sharing resources often makes it possible for organizations to provide services or fill needs it couldn't manage on its own. Just as organizations and initiatives take different forms, there are many different ways to share positions and resources. The basic goals of sharing, however, are almost always the same: to help the sharers gain access to positions, services, or goods that they couldn't afford on their own, to increase their capacities to fulfill their missions, and to advance their organizational goals. Cooperating or collaborating in this way can expand an organization's viewpoint and teach its staff new skills. But there are barriers to sharing positions and resources as well; and unless those barriers are recognized and overcome, sharing resources can turn out to be difficult, if not disastrous, for everyone involved.
How do you know whether you want to enter into a sharing arrangement with one or more other organizations? What might such an arrangement look like? How can you make an arrangement that benefits everyone involved? In this section, we'll discuss...
- Why you might want to enter into a sharing arrangement.
- When it makes sense to try to create a shared position or other resource.
- The different shapes an arrangement of this sort might take, and what kinds of resources can be shared.
- How to create and manage a shared position or other resource.
- Barriers to the success of sharing arrangements, and how to overcome them
WHY SHARE POSITIONS OR OTHER RESOURCES?
There are a number of reasons for creating a shared position or other resource. While money is by far the most common and compelling, organizations may also desire to create better services or a stronger initiative, or may want to support other organizations for philosophical reasons. Merging the talents and purposes of two or more organizations through coordination, cooperation or collaboration, may lead to financial viability, better services, or positive changes in the community.
Money: Grassroots or community based organizations and initiatives are often underfunded at best, and sometimes downright strapped. They might need a position or service, want to provide a needed service to participants, or lack organizational essentials (clerical support, a copier, a phone system, even office supplies). Banding together is one way to meet those needs cheaply. One organization may be eligible for a grant that can be shared with another doing similar or related work. Organizations may be able to barter services, or to offer services to one another extremely cheaply. Whatever the arrangement, each partner gets something it finds valuable, and one or both is usually enabled to do or get something it couldn't otherwise afford.
Although money is certainly an important factor in the operation of grassroots and other non-profit organizations, be careful not to make it the most important factor. The question to keep asking is "How does this further the mission of the organization?" Often, an organization may apply for shared grants or jump at offers of shared positions without thinking carefully about how the particular funding or position fits into the philosophy and purpose of the organization. If a partnership doesn't mesh with what the organization is already doing or wants to do, it is likely to cause more trouble than any financial gain is worth.
Creating better services or a stronger initiative: Sometimes, an organization's larger vision can move it to participate in a sharing arrangement that may not benefit it financially. For example, several groups concerned with public health may coordinate their publicity campaigns, advocate for one another's issues, and provide volunteers to work on one another's initiatives. While their efforts may not have an immediate impact on any one group's finances, by sharing resources, they may call more attention to public health issues than any one of them could by itself.
Shared philosophy: An organization or initiative which supports particular social or political goals may want to share resources with other groups that feel similarly, in order to create more community support for those goals. By pooling resources, these groups may be able to have a larger voice in the community than if each spoke only for itself, and thus influence the thinking of the public in a more powerful way.
WHEN SHOULD AN ORGANIZATION CONSIDER A SHARING ARRANGEMENT?
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