Institutional Partnerships: Strategic Foundations and Public Funding
Multi-year partnerships with major foundations, federated and government funding at scale, and diversifying past any single institution. The executive's relationships with the funders that can change the organization, and the plan for the day they stop.
Through the Arts & Culture lens
A national or regional cultural foundation's multi-year operating or capital commitment fits this module's definition well, and the exit written at the start matters especially here, since a funder's support for a specific artistic direction can otherwise quietly become permanent scaffolding an institution has no plan to replace. A lead foundation gift tied to a building or endowment campaign often carries the same leadership-relationship and shared-goals features as any large partnership, which means it deserves the partnership memorandum's discipline, not just a standard gift agreement, even though it looks like a single large grant.
Continuing education
1.00 points
Leadership and Management · Securing the Gift
Learning objectives
- Distinguish a grant from a partnership, and describe what a multi-year institutional partnership asks of the executive, the funder, and the organization.
- Structure multi-year foundation partnerships and manage government and federated funding at scale, including the relationships at the leadership level that grants staff cannot hold.
- Draft a partnership memorandum that states shared goals, mutual obligations, and the exit, and a diversification plan for the funding the institution most depends on.
- Analyze an organization's move away from a government funding majority and identify what made it possible.
Designed for CFRE continuing education. Not yet accepted; no CFRE points can be claimed.
Lessons
- 18 min
Video lesson
From grants to partnerships
II See · Leadership and Management
- 20 min
Field guide· PDF
Multi-year foundation partnerships and public funding at scale
IV Invite · Securing the Gift
- 18 min
Template· DOCX
The partnership memorandum and the diversification plan
VI Accompany · Leadership and Management
- 16 min
Case study· PDF
Case study: diversifying past a government majority
VI Accompany · Leadership and Management
This is members-only material.
Members get every lesson, template, and worksheet in all eight tracks, plus the support to put them to work in your shop.
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Campaign Strategy: Feasibility to Celebration
The full arc of a modern campaign: feasibility, goal-setting, phases, communications, and the ending that sets up the next one.
Fundamentals & Ethics
Culture of Philanthropy: Leading Across the Organization
When program staff, finance, and the front desk understand their role in fundraising, the work gets easier. Building that culture is executive work.