Collaboration: what charities say works

The independent regulator of charitable activity in England and Wales asked 10,000 charities about their experiences of joint working for its report ‘Strength in numbers - Small charities experience of working together’. Of the 2,500 charities that replied, nearly a fifth were from organisations in the arts and culture sector. Little previous research had been done on the issue of joint working, or on charities with an income below £250,000, yet nearly all of the charities on the Commission’s books are in this category and they have a combined income £4bn. Previous Commission research has shown that bigger charities (£1m plus income) are more likely to collaborate than smaller ones with an income of less than £10,000.

The Commission says collaboration is an untapped opportunity and so charities should not be wallflowers but be more proactive. Cutting costs, sharing resources, improving services and boosting reputation are just some of the benefits reported by the charities – as well as improving the chances of accessing funding. However, the report highlights the need for charities to go into partnership with their eyes open: forward planning, leadership from the top and two-way communication the key to success.

The findings include:
• Almost half (45%) of all charities had collaborated in the last two years, and most (73%) were in the middle of working together with a partner organisation at the time of the survey
• Over three quarters of charities that had collaborated said that benefits to their organisations, rather than directly to their customers, were the main drivers to collaborate. Half said that a significant challenge facing them was one of the main reasons for looking at working with another charity
• Over half (54%) said money was not a main factor behind collaboration
• Specific benefits realised through collaboration included maintaining or improving services, enhancing reputation, cost reductions and increased access to funding opportunities
• The reasons behind charities’ choice of partner were mainly because they had similar aims (44%) or were local (34%), rather than to meet the requirements of funding bodies (8%), share information (1%) or because of a lack of funds to deliver projects alone (12%)
• One of the prerequisites for successful collaborations is previous good relationships between partners (55%) as well as having shared values and aims with those organisations (52%).
• Key ingredients for successful collaboration included effective leadership, planning and communication: 30% said these factors were the reason why joint working failed.
• The majority of smaller charities (80%) said their collaboration experience had been a success, and a third said it had been very successful.
• A third of charities experienced difficulties, with lack of funding and personality clashes being the most commonly encountered problems
• A third of charities stated that they had not collaborated because they had not been approached by another organisation, though nearly half were not convinced of the benefits

Dame Suzi Leather, Chair of the Charity Commission, summed it up in a sentence: “…now more than ever charities should be planning to collaborate.”