Charity networking

James

What a fine question!

There have indeed been many attempts to provide forums for networking and cooperation. NCVO stands out as a particularly large example.

The challenges for such networks are myriad - if you can find common cause, you can trip over the egos involved. Sometimes it's not so much the personalities as the principles that make cooperation difficult.

At least one of the European funding streams operated a networking site for people to find partners. With the common goal of extracting cash from Brussels, some of the partnerships achieved their aims!

At a local level it can be much easier to cooperate. Local Strategic Planning partnerships achieved quite a bit in this line. Organisations with common interests often meet at local level, and excellent partnerships can result, often predicated on the mutual respect of the leaders of participating bodies.

Some recent funding streams have encouraged shotgun marriages - these tend to be less successful, for some reason!

In terms of brain-picking, besides this wonderful forum (can I have a bonus point, Howard???) I heartily recommend the Institute of Fundraising, especially the local group network.

I'll be watching this thread with interest, to see if anybody else chips in.

Cheers

Gerry