The Collaboration Challenge
Book

The Collaboration Challenge

How Nonprofits and Businesses Succeed through Strategic Alliances

James E. Austin
Jossey-Bass, 2000

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

In a seamlessly written and organized book, James E. Austin introduces corporate America to the benefits of collaboration with non-profit organizations, both to communities and to the for-profit companies themselves. The book presents examples of 15 successful collaborations that may inspire you to act, and describes a three-stage model for building such partnerships that will show you how. The relationships described here could well serve as models for the 21st century community, and the some of the results that companies and non-profits achieved from their interaction will be a surprise. getAbstract recommends this groundbreaking book (which is focused primarily on U.S. concerns) to corporate leaders who feel that civic duty compels them to step in where government support is fading, as well as to those with less altruistic motives, but a desire to improve their company’s image and public standing.

Summary

The Benefits of Collaboration

Alliances or collaborations between non-profit organizations and corporations are expected to become commonplace during the 21st century, particularly in the United States, where governmental support for non-profits is declining.

Many successful collaborations are already underway. Timberland, an outdoor boot and apparel outfitter, teams up with City Year, a Service Corps program for disadvantaged youths. Timberland started out donating boots and eventually became City Year’s official uniform provider and major corporate backer, providing the organization with about $1 million annually. The Ralston Purina Co., a large pet-food maker, teamed up with the American Humane Association, an animal-protection organization, to create Pets for People, a program to increase pet adoptions. Georgia-Pacific, a large forest-products company, collaborates with the Nature Conservancy, an international conservation organization, to combine economic development with preservation. Nordstrom, a leading clothing retailer headquartered in Seattle, teamed up with the city’s United Way charities drive.

Expect the number of collaborations like these to increase...

About the Author

James E. Austin is the John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration at Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration and chair of the Harvard Business School Initiative on Social Enterprise. His teaching specialties include social entrepreneurship, strategic management of non-profits, and non-profit board governance. He is also the author of 15 books, including Managing in Developing Countries and Strategic Management in Developing Countries.

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