We can achieve extraordinary things through partnerships.
A good partnership has the potential to bring the scale of resources and scope of action required to solve the most complex social problems. But collaboration can be expensive, and initial enthusiasm for a partnership can wane under the burden of meetings, conference calls, and inconsistent follow through. We bring a suite of strategic planning, process design, and analytical tools to help bring – and keep – partnerships together.
Effective partnership thrives on a clear strategy. When Costa Rican President Óscar Arias laid out an ambitious plan to protect the nation’s natural resources in 2007 – resources which account for as much as 5% of the planet’s biodiversity – some observers deemed it impossible. Together with the Linden Trust for Conservation, The Nature Conservancy, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Redstone helped map the landscape of stakeholders, their work and interests to identify likely collaborators, and pioneered a new approach that helped secure commitments to expand the protected area system, improve management, strengthen relevant agencies, and establish a financing mechanism to cover recurring costs.
Smart process design can ensure that the momentum sparked at the onset of a collaboration doesn’t fade over time. The Ouagadougou Partnership has helped increase the users of modern contraceptive methods by 1.2 million women and girls since its launch in 2011. In our work with the Partnership, we have helped develop common goals, specific targets and milestones, and match sources and uses of funds to guide implementation. When the highest stakes decisions a collaboration makes – around goals, scope, prioritization and budgeting – are made efficiently, the members can focus their energy on execution.
Practical and rigorous analyses can help ensure the most important interventions receive the funding they need. In New York City, Redstone helped form a coalition of major players working to end hunger in the city and develop and implement its strategic plan. The New York City Food Assistance Collaborative is an effort to direct emergency food resources equitably and efficiently to residents in need. Over months of due diligence and analysis, we identified high-priority neighborhoods in which the Collaborative could focus initial capacity building efforts, and designed a plan to help improve information sharing and enhance the client experience at the city’s emergency food programs. We have developed and used a variety of analytical tools, including financial models, geographic mapping, monitoring dashboards, and other sector-specific tools to help collaborations implement and adjust strategies effectively.