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 K-12 Schools lens
Multi-year institutional partnerships at this scale are unusual for most independent and parochial schools, but where a major education-focused foundation commits several years of support to one initiative, insisting on shared goals and mutual obligation explicitly protects a head of school from accepting a large grant that ends up running its own program inside the school's building. Where a school leans on sustained public funding, often through state per-pupil mechanisms, applying the same diversification thinking matters even to funding that feels permanent, since formulas change with budget cycles a head of school doesn't control.
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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