Collaborative Initiatives: A Comparative Analysis

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As the title suggests, this article, by Beth Gazley and Jeffrey L. Brudney, is the result of a study done to understand similarities and differences in why local governments and nonprofits choose to collaborate, particularly when those relationships are not governed by formal contracts or grants (Gazley & Brudney, 2007). Further, this article looks at various collaborative efforts in both, nonprofit and public sectors, and discusses the outcomes of these efforts. Collaboration in this regard has been agreed on as voluntary, autonomous membership (partners retain their independent decision-making powers even when they agree to some common rules), and they have some transformational purpose or desire to increase systemic capacity by tapping …show more content…
The reason for this is that there is a commonality between this and several agreed upon ideas that make up private-public partnerships, thus giving an agreed upon baseline for the study. Using this definition, an eight-page survey was administered in Georgia, with the final responses numbering 311 public agencies and 1,061 nonprofit organizations (Gazley & Brudney, 2007). The findings of this survey point to several positive points in collaborative efforts, organizational age, size on goals, and resource dependence, all being influential here. While influences of non-collaboration include concerns about organizational capacity, quality of relations, and competition between the sectors. These influencers, accompanied by findings that show there is a higher rate of responses that express concern over collaborative efforts from those that have prior experience versus those that do not are discussed for the rest of this …show more content…
On the contrary, there is sufficient information to suggest that not only are they not interested in this, but that they may view the public agencies as a threat to resources. If that is the case then it can also be stated that collaborative partnerships may need to be better defined by both organizations when entering such agreements.
Questions
1. If there is an upward trend of mistrust from nonprofits in these collaborative experiences, does that suggest that public agencies are only using these agreements for self-gain?
2. Who may prosper more through these collaborative efforts, organizations that are of equal caliber or ones that are mismatched in size and resources?
Gazley, Beth & Brudney, Jeffrey L. (2007, Sept. 1). The Purpose (and Perils) of Government-Nonprofit Partnership [PDF]. SAGE Journals. Retrieved March 28, 2017, from

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