{"id":1618,"date":"2020-02-25T11:30:47","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T11:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/2020\/12\/23\/the-3-cs-of-collaboration\/"},"modified":"2024-03-26T14:39:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T09:09:48","slug":"the-3-cs-of-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/the-3-cs-of-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"The 3Cs of collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"

When EdelGive Foundation decided to do more to advance the education of rural Maharashtra’s 16 million elementary school children, CEO Vidya Shah<\/a> and her colleagues knew that the foundation alone lacked the financial resources and on-the-ground presence to accomplish this enormous goal. Undaunted, in 2016, EdelGive embarked on a bold and innovative solution: it formed The Collaborators for Transforming Education<\/a>, a public-private partnership that currently comprises seven primary funders, two operating partners, and the state of Maharashtra’s Department of School Education and Sports. Collectively, they have reached 1.3 million students so far.<\/p>

The Collaborators are just one example of a small but growing trend in India toward philanthropic collaboratives. We define them as entities co-created by three or more independent actors (including at least one philanthropist or philanthropic institution) who pursue a shared vision and strategy for achieving social impact, using common resources and prearranged governance mechanisms. In increasing numbers, Indian funders, government, nonprofits, and intermediaries are joining forces to address the array of climate, economic, social, and other looming problems faced by the country. “If we want to do scale-related work, the only way forward is through collaboratives,” Shah says. “There is no other option to tackle these big social problems.”<\/p>

The Bridgespan Group<\/a>’s recent research, detailed in Philanthropic Collaboratives in India: The Power of Many<\/em><\/a>, found that most Indian collaboratives are less than five years old. Given their promise, why has there not been more formal collaboration to address complex social change?<\/p>

\"What<\/a><\/div>

Call it the ‘collaboration conundrum’. Social sector actors understand in theory that they benefit by drawing on others’ resources, skills, and experiences, but relatively few do so because it can be difficult to build consensus across multiple partners, accept the risk that some partners might fail to deliver, or share credit for their work.<\/p>

Nevertheless, our survey of multiple stakeholders affiliated with 13 Indian philanthropic collaboratives and more than 50 interviews found that for a large majority of these unions, the benefits of working together outweigh the risks. Indeed, 71 percent of the 35 survey respondents strongly agreed that collaboration has enabled them to make more progress toward addressing India’s socio-economic challenges, than working alone has.\"graph<\/p>

The organisations surveyed also identified three primary motivations for working collaboratively:<\/p>