Module 2 - Forming Partnerships
Overview | Orientation | Partners | Roles | Proposal Steps | Resources
Selecting Partners
How does someone select partners for inclusion in a proposal?
Before approaching potential partners, it is important to “see” or imagine what a project looks like in its entirety. This means you should develop a picture of what your project will look like and what roles you anticipate different partners will play in its implementation. It is particularly important for you to carve out the role that you and your organization want to take and to be able to describe this as fully as possible.
Develop your Project’s Picture
The picture you create can change—and probably will—during the proposal development process, but it provides a starting point from which conversations with potential partners can proceed. As you develop the picture of your project, you should consider questions such as:
- Do we want to lead on the project?
- What activities do we want primary responsibility for?
- What activities do we want to participate in, but not lead?
- What activities do we want partners to take responsibility for?
- Which of the activities we want to do are we willing to negotiate (i.e., relinquish)?
- Which are non negotiable?
This is also a good time to think about the overall budget of the project and approximately how much can be allotted to partners while retaining sufficient funds for your own organization to fulfill your project responsibilities. This will be addressed more fully below in the section on negotiating roles/responsibilities and budget.
Examine Partner Priorities
It is important to understand the institutional self-interest of potential partners.
To do that, you have to consider questions such as
- What are the missions of potential partners? What do they do?
- What are the visions of potential partners? How do they hope to grow? What are their ambitions?
- What are the sustainability strategies of potential partners?
How do you determine the self-interest of an organization or individual?
- By holding one-on-one meetings or phone calls with the leader(s) of potential partners. Your conversation should include exploratory questions around the vision and needs of your potential partners. It should allow you to identify and highlight areas of mutual interest.
- By conducting research on partners (e.g., reviewing partner websites, publications, etc.).
- By consulting with others who have worked with the potential partners.
Understand Partner School Districts
Most projects will involve at least one school district, where your assessment and negotiations will require the following considerations.
- Having a general idea of the district’s challenges, achievements and ambitions prior to approaching it for inclusion as a partner.
- State Departments of Education offer demographic and standardized test results that can help you determine whether a district may be a candidate for your project.
- Checking a school district’s own website can provide information about special programs that a district is implementing, which can act as clues regarding a district’s priorities.
- Distinguishing between the decision-maker and the lead proposal “worker.”
- The final decision maker is invariably the School Superintendent, although in some instances departmental heads and/or designated development staff are empowered to make decisions about the content or programs proposed in a proposal.
- The "worker” you need to identify is the individual who becomes your key institutional contact in the proposal writing process. This is the person who gets material such as program descriptions, student performance data, resumes of key staff, budgets and so on for you. In most cases you will interact with this individual directly and with the Superintendent indirectly.
Measure Partnership Value
Finally, you should assess the extent to which potential partners strengthen the overall proposal. Your assessment should address questions such as Does a potential partner have a national reputation that will add status to the proposal?
- Does a potential partner fill an otherwise unfillable “gap” in the proposed project?
- A gap can be almost anything. Examples of how potential partners might fill a gap include: providing research sites and participants; providing expertise in an area relevant to the proposed project; having a track record in a particular activity or service mandated by the ITEST solicitation; adding diversity in the make-up of the overall partnership; offering the capacity to address a particular target population, or adding to the geographic reach of the proposed project.
- Does a potential partner have previous experience in similar kinds of projects or with NSF as a funding source?
Do not forget to take into account the “long view” when determining whether not an organization may add value as a partner. When doing so, you and your team should ask yourselves the following questions.
- Can we imagine working with the potential partner on opportunities beyond the current proposal?
- Do the long-term interests of the potential partner align with those of our organization?
- Does the current proposal offer a chance to test whether a potential partner might be a prospect for a long-term relationship?
Where does someone find potential partners?
In Module 1—"STELAR," we mentioned some of the resources available to you through the STELAR Center. STELAR has a great resource for forming partner relationships called the People Connector. The People Connector is a directory of individuals who can provide expertise or other resources for ITEST projects. Not finding the expert you need? You can also register yourself in the directory as someone who is looking for expertise. Check out the STELAR website here for more about the People Connector.
As you start to gather the names and contact information of your potential partners, you will want to start reaching out to them as soon as possible. Having several different potential partners in mind as you begin your search will allow you to be more judicious as you decide which partners are the best fit for your program.
Review your Concept Paper that you wrote in Module 1. Consider the following questions.