“Public-private partnerships aren't new in higher education. But, in 2012, some especially compelling financial reasons accelerated development of public-private partnerships between public universities and private entities in their communities. Public institutions have never been under more pressure to find alternative sources of revenue to help
In this blog post, The Intersector Project’s Executive Director Neil Britto asks whether organizations that seek to improve the practice of cross-sector collaboration are forgetting what could be their most important client — the public sector. “Our exploratory research of a robust sample of the
In this Government Executive article, authors John D. Donahue and Richard J. Zeckhauser call attention to the potential for collaborative governance to move the United States past the debate over how big or small government should be, and to unleash “the unpredictable resourcefulness of an
In this Governing article, John Donahue warns against asking how much involvement the private sector should have in solving public problems. “The right question concerns not ‘how much’ but rather ‘how’ the private sector should be involved. There is a vast, variegated, and under-examined menu
This piece from Living Cities’ Tynesia Boyea-Robinson looks at the potential public-sector gap in the cross-sector collaboration support industry. “We agree that there is a ‘public sector gap’ in the arena of cross-sector partnerships, and if we continue to neglect to fill this gap, we
This Toolkit looks at the complex process of evaluating collaborative efforts. “Familiar evaluation practices — ones largely built on a discrete or distinct program delivered by one agency — don’t seem to work. Field staff have begun raising a variety of questions which indicate the
“Changing how we do things isn’t just about reworking laws, policies, and systems; it means rethinking the very act of problem-solving,” write Karen Abrams Gerber and Andrea Jacobs in SSIR. They outline what they believe are the five basic tenets of successful collaboration (engaging unlikely
“The Good Collaboration Toolkit is a set of materials aimed to help individuals collaborate well and build successful collaborations. Through a series of activities, participants will be asked to consider questions, dilemmas, and cases involved with all aspects of the collaboration, most especially the process of
“Solving complex problems rarely happens among a small group of stakeholders who share many things in common. In fact, when problems cross issue areas, levels of government, and even sectors, solutions cannot be found and successfully implemented without engagement from many stakeholders. These stakeholders may
The Community Tool Box is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change. The Assessing Community Needs and Resources Toolkit provides guidance for conducting assessments of community needs and resources, including: Describe the makeup and history of the community