Supporting collaboration and partnerships in a changing context

This research, commissioned by Big Lottery Fund (BIG), looked at collaboration and partnership working in a changing context. It was carried out by IVAR between January and March 2011 and the aim was to explore how the BIG could support its voluntary and community sector (VCS) applicants and grant holders to ‘collaborate more effectively’ and so ‘deliver their agreed project outcomes more successfully in a changing environment.’

The key findings include:

• VCS organisations face growing pressure to collaborate but the time and resources (including support) that would help them to make good decisions about collaborative working arrangements are being reduced.
• Merger and consortium formation are perceived negatively by many participants for being, respectively, “forced” on organisations and for requiring high investment for uncertain return. Group structures and sharing back office functions are perceived as more compatible with VCS mission and values and, therefore, more likely to be internally driven.
• Opportunities for learning between international aid and domestic VCS organisations are currently under-exploited.
• BIG (and other funders) can address some of the issues raised by enabling organisations to think first about what they want to achieve through collaborating before deciding what form collaborative working arrangements should take.