After brainstorming your project ideas and assessing your available resources, it is time to scope out potential partners to help fill in gaps and formalize relationships.
please keep in mind that each project is different. This outline offers suggestions and lessons learned from successful and less successful collaborations. while each project is unique in the way responsibilities are shared, perhaps one universal attribute of successful partnerships is mutual respect. The most successful collaborations are characterized by a demonstrated respect for each partners's time, work, space, staff, or policies in words and actions.
Once you know where you need help, start thinking about who you know who might have those skills, areas of expertise, resources, and interest.
- Partnerships should be selected on the basis of specific strengths.
- If you don't know someone who fits the bill, can someone you know introduce you to someone you would like to know? What are some ways of finding someone with skills you don't have if you don't know anyone with those skills?
- Attending conferences and unconferences can be the best way to meet potential collaborators who share similar goals and passions. Informal gatherings are often the best place to chat with folks: “Birds of a Feather” dinners, or affinity group luncheons.
- Talk to a grant program office about your project; they may have some great recommendations.
- Circulate some ideas on your professional social networks to scope out potential partners.
- Talk with a potential collaborator. Introduce yourself by email and schedule a phone call. It’s very important to speak or meet face-to-face with potential collaborators before formalizing partnerships.
- Good partners share in the project’s vision and are committed to the project’s success.
- Good partners respect one another and appreciate what each one brings to the project.
- Clearly state expectations of work in a written document or contract.
- Make sure each partner understands exactly what their contributions will be, when those contributions are due, and who else is responsible for other pieces.
- Be sure both/all parties are in agreement on issues such as:
- who takes notes during meetings,
- who manages the budget,
- who is the “decider” on major project decisions.
- Determine who the primary contact for inter-institutional communications will be.
- Designate staff titles and responsibilities, including a description of job responsibilities over the life-cycle of the project.
- Early on, establish communication norms: including regular meeting times, means for meeting (conference calls, Skype, Hangouts, et al), and best ways to communicating in between meetings (ie, email only), and collect all preferred contact information and publish it somewhere accessible to the entire team.
- Use project management software for organizing project tasks, deadline, deliverable requirements that makes all of this information easily accessible and visible to project collaborators.
- If working with geographically-dispersed collaborators, be sure to schedule face-to-face meetings at a reasonable, yet, regular interval.
- Generally, treat all project team members with respect and engage in common courtesies.
- No project is able to anticipate all problems or challenges before they occur, but simply acknowledging that challenges may arise, and allowing time and budget for those challenges is helpful.
- Not all collaborations work out as planned, even with the best of intentions.
- If there is a major breakdown in communications, or if relationships deteriorate, you may need to break apart partnerships.
When preparing a proposal, you will need mentors, collaborators, or other interested parties to write a strong letter of support for your project that will help your proposal stand out to the reviewers. Some funders want letters from all project participants.
It is important to respect people’s time when asking them for a letter by showing that you’ve done your research and that you have some grant materials to share with them. Good letters demonstrate some knowledge of the project and recognition of its impact if funded.
Follow these steps when asking for a support letter and for specific types of assistance during the life of the grant, and you should receive a good letter in return.
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One month before grant deadline, begin brainstorming candidates for letters of support and note which collaborators are required to submit letters of commitment and support.
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Start asking supporters at least two weeks in advance of grant deadline, because they will also have deadlines and other work competing for their work hours. You may find some folks are on leave at the time you inquire, be sure to have back-ups on your list.
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Email potential supporters, collaborators:
- State why, specifically, you are asking Person A for support;
- Be specific about what you are asking Person A to do over the scope of the grant, if anything, such as participate in 3 meetings, 2 phone calls over 18 months; or agree to review the project and provide feedback one month before official launch;
- Provide any information about compensation, especially when asking someone to participate (ie, there will be a modest honorarium to recognize the time you give to this project of $xxx); 8 Tell supporters what exactly you need to complete the grant application, in what format, and by what date (ie, a 2-page CV in PDF and letter of support on letterhead by next Friday).
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Attach materials that will be helpful for them when writing the letter.
- Provide a short project summary that includes the project goals, deliverables, and work plan from the grant proposal draft;
- Include a starter letter containing sample text that references that person’s or institution’s role and why they are supporting the project.