This article is titled "Nonprofit Collaboration 2.0" and was published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), which is one of the most important global references in social innovation and the nonprofit sector.

The article is authored by Peter Panepento, who is the co-founder of Turn Two Communications, specializing in communication and marketing for nonprofits and grant-making institutions. He has previously served as an editor at The Chronicle of Philanthropy and held a senior executive position at the Council on Foundations, reflecting his deep expertise in media and nonprofit institutional work.

The article highlights fundamental transformations in the concept of collaboration within the nonprofit sector, where collaboration is no longer limited to symbolic initiatives or short-term partnerships, but has evolved into broader and deeper strategic alliances that extend beyond the sector itself, encompassing for-profit companies, academic institutions, and governmental entities, in order to achieve sustainable and shared impact.

To read the original article: Nonprofit Collaboration 2.0 – SSIR

Every year, the Maryland Food Bank provides more than 41 million meals to people in need. These meals often come from traditional sources such as financial contributions, canned goods, pasta boxes, and bags of rice collected by generous families through food drives and donation boxes in churches. However, a significant portion of the organization's food also comes from an unexpected source: prison inmates.

The food bank collaborates with nonprofits in Maryland and about 50 local farms to send soon-to-be-released inmates to the fields to collect nearly 800,000 pounds of agricultural products for hungry families. This effort annually provides about 650,000 meals, which accounts for more than 10 percent of the food bank's meals.

While the hungry in Maryland are the primary beneficiaries, the program is as much an opportunity for the inmates as it is for the food bank. Carmen Del Giudice, the CEO of the Maryland Food Bank, says: "This program works because it helps provide opportunities for soon-to-be-released inmates to reintegrate back into society. They are able to reconnect with the community outside the prison walls. They get to interact with other people—and they have the chance to do something that benefits the community."

This effort is part of a growing trend towards greater collaboration between nonprofits and other partners. At a time when nonprofits are under pressure due to government budget cuts and facing increasing needs among those they serve, many groups are realizing that they cannot achieve their missions without building new alliances. Often, these partnerships are found in unexpected places.

Nonprofits Feel the Pressure

This spring, BBB's Give.org platform gathered leaders from about twenty nonprofit organizations in the first of a series of roundtable sessions focusing on collaborative experiences. These initial discussions attracted a diverse range of leaders, from major U.S. organizations like Feeding America and Meals on Wheels, to smaller community organizations like the poverty-fighting organization "A Wider Circle."

These conversations yielded some interesting insights—most notably that nonprofits, whether large or small, are facing increasing pressure to achieve their missions creatively. This pressure is not only coming from government cuts and rising needs, but also from technology—participants noted that it is pushing many nonprofits to adapt their fundraising methods, improve their communication and marketing strategies, and tackle rising cybersecurity challenges.

The sum of these factors is driving many organizations to think creatively about their work, often through collaborations with other groups. However, their methods of collaboration often differ from what we typically envision when we talk about nonprofit partnerships. Interestingly, many of the most successful forms of collaboration have been between groups working on very different missions, or between nonprofits and groups outside the nonprofit sector.

Unexpected Alliances

A good example is Meals on Wheels America, which partners with the pharmaceutical company Eisai to deliver meals to cancer patients who have been discharged from the hospital to recover at home. Ellie Hollander, the CEO of Meals on Wheels America says: "This is a for-profit entity that has no direct interest other than the desire to do philanthropic work. They have been fantastic partners, and they even offer employees the opportunity to volunteer in meal delivery."

Meanwhile, three other organizations—DonorsChoose, GlobalGiving, and Kiva—have agreed to work with Harvard Business School and the John Templeton Foundation to conduct A/B testing on fundraising pages, to determine whether certain online giving incentives are more effective than others. This research will help all three organizations improve their online fundraising techniques, and will be publicly shared in the hope of helping other nonprofits achieve better fundraising results.

These three organizations are also part of a larger group including charity: water and others, which meets regularly to share best practices and advise each other in facing challenges. Kevin Conroy, the Head of Product at GlobalGiving says: "Sharing our experiences has allowed us to scale faster. All our organizations exist to make the world a better place. If we can help each other get there faster, we can all achieve the 'greater' mission."

Increased Opportunities for Collaboration

But while organizations like the Maryland Food Bank and GlobalGiving have made collaboration a core part of their culture, for many nonprofits, collaboration is still often just individual arrangements that happen almost by chance. Organizations tend to collaborate mostly with groups they already have a relationship with or when an opportunity is presented to them. Art Taylor, the President and CEO of BBB Wise Giving Alliance states: "We are witnessing a number of innovative and impactful forms of collaboration. But these collaborations happen almost by accident. We need to change that and find ways to make collaboration more intentional."

An important part of achieving this goal involves developing toolkits and sharing best practices to help nonprofits effectively navigate collaboration, which can be complex and chaotic even in its simplest forms. The sector must also find ways to embrace more innovative collaborations by strengthening connections among potential partners and providing incentives for groups to work together.

Finding a Win-Win

Funders can help. The ongoing collaboration between DonorsChoose, GlobalGiving, and Kiva started from an informal conversation at a grantee meeting organized by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the John Templeton Foundation helped boost their efforts by providing a research grant.

However, while grantmaking institutions and other funders can help stimulate more collaboration, they must do so cautiously. Kimon Sargent, Vice President of Programs at the Templeton Foundation says: "Institutions can be like the 800-pound gorilla in the room. The ideal scenario is when groups identify a win-win and come to us from the beginning. Otherwise, we risk imposing the outcome."

One potential way to encourage more nonprofits to naturally identify collaboration opportunities is through initiatives like "Communities of Opportunity"—a public-private partnership in King County, Washington, developed by the Seattle Foundation and the county, aimed at motivating nonprofit and community organizations to address deep-rooted issues related to health, housing, economic opportunities, and racial inequality. Rather than imposing specific solutions, the Seattle Foundation and its partners invite community groups to propose new ways to solve these problems. The foundation then collaborates with local government to find the resources needed to help them succeed.

Michael Brown, Vice President of Community Programs at the Seattle Foundation says: "We are trying to turn everything upside down. It is all about building community power and strengthening its capacities so that it can lead, implement, and drive the strategies." He adds: "Forming new partnerships is always challenging. Much of it is about building relationships and trust."

Indeed, any successful collaboration—whether it is a marriage or a partnership between two established organizations—depends on building relationships and trust. The BBB Give.org roundtable represents an effort to help nonprofits begin to find more intentional ways to engage in and approach collaboration, so there can be mutual benefits and improved outcomes for partners. Such efforts will not only benefit existing collaborations but will also open the door to accelerating more innovative and effective partnerships in the future.

Towards More Intentional Partnerships in the Saudi Nonprofit Sector

What Panepento suggests in his article extends beyond American experiences to offer important lessons for the nonprofit sector in the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 has brought this sector to the forefront of development work, assigning it significant responsibilities that exceed the traditional role of providing direct services to contributing to building a prosperous economy and vibrant society.

In this context, collaboration between associations and organizations is no longer an optional complement but has become a strategic necessity to face complex challenges such as poverty, unemployment, health, and education. Major projects like national platforms for the nonprofit sector, governance programs, and digital transformation initiatives affirm that success at this stage requires alliances that transcend the boundaries of a single specialty.

It is noteworthy that the experiences discussed in the article reveal that the most effective partnerships are often with unexpected entities: for-profit companies, universities, or even governmental institutions, which aligns perfectly with the Saudi direction towards integrating the three sectors (governmental, for-profit, and nonprofit).

Embracing the concept of Collaboration 2.0 in our local environment means moving from symbolic partnerships to building integrated collaborative systems, based on trust, knowledge exchange, and resource sharing. This will enhance the ability of the Saudi nonprofit sector to multiply its impact and achieve its ambitious role within the Vision 2030 framework.