Partnerships 2: should social enterprises date, co-habit or marry?

Goteam Typically, two days after I write a long post about partnership (and thanks for those who've commented, tweeted etc positively), a great podcast comes up on my commute in to work on….partnership. So I'll keep this brief: this podcast, Strategic Restructuring by David La Piana, is brilliant. On mergers, on partnerships (of different types), on what role funders and practitioners can play, and much much more. Some quick highlights:

– great comparison of non-profit partnerships to relationships: know whether you are dating, living together, or getting married for ever…

– effortless demolition of the "there are too many charities and social enterprises" argument

– realism on mergers: they normally don't save money, culture is most important, it needs to start with mission, economies of scale (or lack of therein) etc, etc

Highly, highly recommended for social entrepreneurs, funders, policymakers and all in the sector (+ check out all the various materials at the bottom of the page for more). I've also added it to our list of recommended podcasts, and you can find more sense-making stuff from David La Piana at LaPiana.org

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2 thoughts on “Partnerships 2: should social enterprises date, co-habit or marry?

  1. I Think there are real issues with economies of scale for small to medium sized social enterprises working in ever shrinking pools of funding, commissioning opportunities and revenue generating activity. I’m not sure I would want to ‘marry’ some of our partners/competitors but I do think there is a value to working in collaboration. we have a number of collaboration agreements that seem to work really well for us 🙂

  2. Thank you! This is a great, great list of suggestions that I plan to hang on to. It is so important to keep a balanced life and not get into a habit in which we sometimes bury ourselves.If we do you said,I think it is good for us,thanks again.