For several years we worked alongside a Southern California faith-based non-profit as they sought to build partnerships in a Southeast Asian country. In cooperation with their leadership, we defined a long-term vision as they sought to invest deeply in relationships and form cooperative, collaborative partnerships, what we have labeled Developmental Partnerships.
This was a dramatic shift in strategy and practice for the organization, so we assisted them in developing a set of principles as a guide and a proposed timeline that outlined definable, measurable goals. We also helped establish a program to educate their leaders and constituents, and finally we assisted them in recruiting and deploying several teams with the goal of understanding the context in the field and identifying the best partnership role.