Collaborating with another charity beats competing

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

Two organisations in the same town serve overlapping groups, apply to the same funders, and know each other only well enough to feel mildly competitive. Both are stretched, both duplicate the same administration, and neither can reach the people the other sees weekly.

Collaboration is the obvious answer and it is attempted less often than it should be, partly through territoriality and partly because the attempts that do happen frequently go wrong. They go wrong for predictable reasons, almost all of them about expectations nobody wrote down.

1. Collaborating with another charity starts with something small

Ambition is the enemy of a first collaboration.

A shared referral route, a joint session, one piece of shared training. Small collaborations reveal how the other organisation actually works, at low cost, before anything significant depends on it, and they build the trust that a larger arrangement will need.

2. Be honest about why you are doing it

Motives shape what happens later.

Reaching people you cannot reach, reducing duplication, accessing funding that requires partnership, or sharing a cost neither of you can carry alone. A collaboration entered only because a funder wanted to see one usually dissolves the moment that grant ends, having consumed a good deal of everyone’s time.

3. Check that the cultures fit

The most common cause of failure and the least discussed.

Pace of decision-making, attitude to risk, how staff are treated, how formal each organisation is. Two organisations with identical aims and incompatible working styles will frustrate each other regardless of goodwill, and the friction is usually blamed on individuals rather than on the mismatch.

4. Write down who does what

The single most protective step.

Which organisation delivers which part, who holds the money, who reports, who owns the relationship with the people you serve, and what happens to any assets afterwards. Verbal understandings between two enthusiastic chief executives do not survive staff changes.

5. Agree how decisions get made

Ambiguity here surfaces at the worst moment.

Who decides when the partners disagree, how often you meet, and what happens if one organisation wants to change direction. Deciding this while everyone is cooperative is far easier than deciding it during a dispute.

6. Sort out the data properly

An obligation, not an administrative detail.

Sharing information about the people you support requires a lawful basis, appropriate consent, and usually a written agreement. Check what applies in your jurisdiction before any names are exchanged, not afterwards.

7. Protect each organisation's identity

Collaboration should not blur who is who.

Be clear which organisation is providing what, especially in materials and with the people you serve. Partnerships that obscure this create confusion for service users and resentment between partners about credit.

8. Handle joint funding with care

Money is where partnerships most often break.

Who is the lead applicant, how costs are apportioned, who carries the risk if the grant is reduced, and how overheads are shared. Agree it before submission, because renegotiating after an award is far harder.

9. Review it honestly and be willing to stop

Not every collaboration should continue.

Set a point to assess whether it is producing what you hoped, and treat ending it as a legitimate outcome rather than a failure. Partnerships continued out of politeness consume time that both organisations need elsewhere.

Tell your trustees what you are entering into. Collaborations create obligations, sometimes financial and sometimes reputational, and boards are frequently informed only after arrangements are already in place.

Conclusion

Start with something small, because a limited first collaboration shows you how the other organisation actually operates.

Be clear about why you are doing it rather than responding to a funder's preference, check that working cultures are compatible, write down who delivers what and who holds the money, agree in advance how disagreements are resolved, establish a lawful basis before sharing any information about service users, keep each organisation's identity distinct, settle the financial arrangements before a joint application is submitted, and review honestly with the willingness to stop.