The Partnering Initiative

  • Training and Services
  • Research and Learning
  • Global Impact
  • TPI Tools
  • Home
  • About Us
  • News & Views
  • Publications
  • Multimedia
  • Friends
  • Contact
  • Programmes
    • The Partnership Accelerator
    • Rapid Climate Action
    • Partnering for Philanthropic Impact
    • Learning from Consortia Programme
    • Mining as a transformational partner in development
You are here: Home / TPI Tools / 12 Steps towards successful cross-sector partnerships

12 Steps towards successful cross-sector partnerships

1. Understand the issue to ensure the programme is relevant and sensitive to the problem and the context: What are the major needs? Who are the key stakeholders? How might the partnership fit with existing activities?

2. Know and respect your partners: understand the resources and value they bring, their culture, their specific drivers for engagement, as well as their limitations and internal challenges. And be open and transparent about your own drivers, value and limitations to help build trust.

3. Ensure that all partners have the knowledge and skills around the process of partnering in order to agree principles and co-create the partnership. Specialist, independent partnership facilitators may help take partners more efficiently through the process of building a robust, effective partnership.

4. Identify clear partnership objectives that deliver results and add value to each of the partners. Objectives should have specific measurable goals to allow the partnership to track progress and demonstrate success and value-add to each partner.

5. Start small and scale up to allow partners to develop effective relationships, build up trust, and test and adjust the partnership’s operational and governance arrangements before moving to more ambitious plans.

6. Co-create a partnering agreement that sets out clear roles and responsibilities
along with objectives and a governance/decision-making structure that ensures proper accountability and efficient delivery.

7. Build strong institutional commitment to the partnership by identifying the clear value of the partnership to each partner’s priorities, engaging senior champions, and integrating where possible with other partner activities.

8. Ensure the highest standard of project management to support a task-focused approach, with all partners actively engaged in delivering tangible and practical results.

9. Embed the highest standards of relationship management to ensure that partners are kept fully engaged and valued, the principles of partnership – equity, transparency, and mutual benefit – are achieved, and that any challenges or issues can be recognised early.

10. Ensure strong communication both within the partnership – contributing to the project and the relationship management – and externally to celebrate success and continue to build buy-in with other stakeholders.

11. Build in ongoing review, including ‘health checks’ to assess the partnership and determine and implement changes that would improve its effectiveness.

12. Plan for the longer term by understanding how the programme (as opposed to the partnership) may be made sustainable or, if designed to be temporary, that the outcomes of the programme are sustained.

download a copy of the 12 steps

In this Section

  • The Fit for Partnering Framework
  • The Partnering Agreement Scorecard
  • 12 Steps towards successful cross-sector partnerships

Recent Posts

  • Fighting side-by-side against COVID-19

    Fighting side-by-side against COVID-19

    April 3, 2020
  • From rhetoric to reality: practicing partnership in philanthropy

    From rhetoric to reality: practicing partnership in philanthropy

    January 25, 2023
  • Report launch: impact and potential for partnering in education examined

    Report launch: impact and potential for partnering in education examined

    January 24, 2023
  • Partnering initiatives in Bulgaria: applying the TPI framework of philanthropic partnering approaches

    Partnering initiatives in Bulgaria: applying the TPI framework of philanthropic partnering approaches

    January 12, 2023

Latest Tweets

  • Thanks to all the panelists and to @Alliancemag for such an interesting and revealing webinar. A reaffirmation of t… https://t.co/yA6aLx6I1r April 28, 2022 4:51 pm
  • Follow the discussion about how foundations need to adapt to be able to deliver more transformational impact throug… https://t.co/9n8S3pUA37 April 28, 2022 2:37 pm
  • Last few days to complete a survey that will help TPI to assess its impact on the world! Please follow the link to… https://t.co/N5SoNKoUpY April 25, 2022 11:46 am
  • Follow Us

Our Courses

  • Building Effective Partnerships for Sustainable Development
  • Certificate in Partnering Practice
  • Tailored Training

Publications

  • The SDG Partnership Guidebook
  • Maximizing Partnership Value Creation Guidebook
  • Unleashing the Power of Business
  • Internal Prospective Partnership Assessment Tool
  • Partnership Platforms for the Sustainable Development Goals

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive TPI updates.

Sign Up Now
  • Training and Services
  • Research and Learning
  • Global Impact
  • TPI Tools


© 2023 The Partnering Initiative · Privacy Policy · Contact Us · Log in