Module 2 - Forming Partnerships
Overview | Orientation | Partners | Roles | Proposal Steps | Resources
Negotiating the Roles of Partners
All ITEST projects require working with students and teachers. Partnering school systems often provide these participants and research sites.
How do we negotiate roles, responsibilities, and budget?
- The reality is that partnerships rarely operate simply out of shared ideals. Organizations require funding to pursue their missions and, more often than not, money becomes the glue holding partnerships together. Smooth-running partnerships are practical. They clearly define each partner’s responsibilities and they support those responsibilities with budgets sufficient to cover all anticipated costs.
- Determine your cut of the budget. Before negotiating with partners, it is important to clearly understand your own organizational bottom line. (The budget development process is addressed in greater detail in Module 7, Budget). That is, you should have a good idea of what percentage of your proposed project's budget your organization requires to successfully fulfill the responsibilities it has identified as its own.
Begin to draft a high-level budget for the activities you have identified as the ones for which you are taking primary responsibility by completing the template linked below. This will provide initial parameters for your organization’s budget and help you determine broad parameters of budgets that could be available to partners. Minimally, the high-level budget should include estimates for staffing, overhead, travel, and any major events you intend to cover in your budget. Add an additional 10%–20% to your own budget as wiggle room as you negotiate with potential partners.
Use the Google Sheet linked below to create a draft budget for the activities for which you will be responsible.
Activity 2.02 High-level Budget Template
Partners and Budgets
Although this budget will not be discussed at the initial partners’ meeting, it will provide you with a basic understanding of how much room there is in the proposed project for partner involvement. Once you have determined what your organization needs, you can begin discussions with partners with the knowledge of how much of the budget can be distributed among your project partners to cover remaining project activities and deliverables.
- Conduct an initial partners’ meeting. The goal of an initial partners’ meeting is to identify what potential partners have to contribute to the project and to get some basic understanding of what they want to get out of the project. Ideally, conduct face-to-face development meetings (in person or electronically) with all partners present. At your meeting, have all parties publicly state what they are willing to do to help the project meet its intended goals. If conducting your meeting electronically, use a shared screen and make participation mandatory for any organization wanting to be included in the proposal. DO NOT TALK ABOUT SPECIFIC BUDGETS HERE.
Determine roles and responsibilities. To be clear and transparent, during your meeting with all potential partners use some sort of “public” document to record what each partner will be prepared to contribute to the operation of the project. Consider completing something like the template below with potential partners at your initial partners’ meeting
Sample Completed Template
| Required RFP Activities | Lead Partner | Specific Actions Partner Will Take |
|---|---|---|
| Lead/Manage the project | Your Organization | Manage budget, work plans, contracts, reports |
| Develop instructional program | Partner X? | Convene faculty/employers to identify skills and create activities |
| Deliver instructional program | Partner X? | Implement instructional program design |
| Provide Professional Development | Partner X? | Design and deliver trainings |
| Conduct Research | Your Organization or Partner X? | Design research, select methods, design/select instruments, collect/analyze data, report results |
| Dissemination | Partner X? | Manage social media |
| Conduct Evaluation | Partner X? | Design, collect/analyze data, report results |
Create your vision of partner roles and responsibilities using the template linked below.
Activity 2.03 Template (download)
Identify additional steps in negotiating roles and responsibilities. Once all potential partners have stated how they would like to be involved in the project and know where they stand in relation to other potential partners, you can move forward individually with each to further clarify their role and responsibilities.
- Be prepared to do a lot of one-on-one follow-up to this discussion in a less public forum. .
- Negotiate budgets with each partner individually.
- Send each partner a detailed description of what their project responsibilities are and ask them to submit a budget request to meet those responsibilities.
- Review each budget and determine whether the budget of any partner needs to be modified.
- Come to agreement with each partner on their budget. This may mean paying more than you expected, or paring down the activities the partner will take on.
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Partnership Etiquette
- Share copies of proposal drafts with partners and solicit feedback.
- Do not modify partner roles or budget without conversing with the partner about proposed changes.
- Provide all partners a copy of the final submitted Proposal Summary and Project Description sections of the proposal. You do not need to send partners full proposals that include the Budget and Budget Narrative.
- Provide updates on the status of a proposal as you become aware of them.
- Inform all partners in a timely manner when word of proposal award or rejection is received.