How to Fund Place-Based Partnerships, if We Want Them to Work
During the early days of COVID in March 2020, members of Rocky Mountain Partnership, a place-based partnership dedicated to driving economic and social mobility for its community members, flexed their collaboration muscles to coordinate a response to quickly evolving community needs in the Denver area. Long-standing relationships and shared systems meant they could quickly coordinate everything from food delivery to childcare for essential workers. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if children and families had this kind of thoughtful and efficient support all the time – not just during times of crisis?
Place-based partnerships recognize that most of the challenges facing communities today cannot be addressed by organizations working alone. In this piece in Nonprofit Quarterly, NFF's Alexandra Chan, Claire Knowlton, and Elise Miller lay out a roadmap for funders who want to align their practices with the values that drive successful place-based partnerships.