Exploring Collaborative Relationships Krista Petty

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Exploring Collaborative RelationshipsKrista
Petty
704-795-8631 krista_at_backyardimpact.com www.backyar
dimpact.com
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Church to Church Collaborations
Survey Says Hartford Institute for
Religion Research National Survey
4 in 10 churches
served together
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Church to Church Collaborations

• Leadership Network (www.leadnet.org) surveyed 75
  Churches from the Externally Focused Church
  Leadership Community.
• We work together most often with
• Food programs (87)
• Emergency assistance (75)
• Children youth programs (70)
• Housing programs (66)
• Prison ministry (54)
• Medical dental programs (37)
• Immigrant ministries (16)
• Special one-day project work (21)

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Churches of Springfield

• Churches of Springfield- 75 churches in
  Springfield, MO
• Select one middle school each year for a one-day
  mega-project. Complete the 5-year maintenance
  plan in one day.
• Train and send 450 individuals to serve as
  reading tutors for Springfield Public School
  children, grades K-3.
• Respond to crisis quickly. Mayor called and 400
  Churches of Springfield volunteers worked on
  Saturdays to clear more than 300 yards

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Church to Church Collaborations
Long Beach Serve Day www.serveday.org Atlanta
Unite! www.uniteus.followers.net/index Knoxville
Compassion Coalition www.compassioncoalition.org
Tampa Houston Somebody Cares
www.somebodycares.org Little Rock, Boulder and
more Sharefest www.sharefest.org
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Church to Church Collaborations

• Key learning points
• Initiated and founded in prayer
• Senior leaders on board
• Listened to God, one another community
• One church willing to serve as an anchor,
  dedicating time and funds, seeking to bless
• and not control.

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Church to Church Collaborations

• EFC LN Survey What were the major obstacles you
  had to overcome in order to work with other
  churches?
• Lack project leadership
• Lack of resources on behalf of one or more
  churches
• Differences in church size
• Lack of adequate support by churchs pastor
• Only 1 of the survey participants noted
• doctrinal difference as a major obstacle.

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Church to Church Collaborations

• EFC LN survey What adjustments, if any, they
  made in order to partner more smoothly with other
  churches?
• Used a different name than any one church itself
• Formed a separate 501c3
• Established a separate board or advisory panel
• Established separate budget or line-item in the
• budget
• Created a staff position or volunteer leader to
  serve
• as liaison

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Church to Church Collaborations
Advice from the Churches of Springfield Avoid
meeting overload. You dont need a lot of
meetings if delegates are trusted
decision-makers. Avoid communication overload.
Care choose what emails you send to the other
churches. Resist communicating the trivial and
NEVER take advantage of the emails in the
network. Dont fight about money. Be clear up
front how you will fund efforts. Share costs.
Dont fight. First, we are here to glorify
God. Second, we check our denominations at the
door.
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Church to Community Collaborations

• Benefits of partnership over replication of
  services
• Greater effectiveness for the people you want to
  serve
• agencies often know more about community needs
• agencies are already connected to people in need
• Combine instead of compete for resources of time
  and money
• Opportunity to build relationships through
  working together
• Church members uniquely use their gifts
• Creates credibility with agencies for future
  referrals

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Church to Community Collaborations

• Create a leadership structure that is
  relationship-based not just project managed.
  Community Connectors
• Building credibility is the churchs
  responsibility.
• Find your common ground and shared mission.
• Do you care about what I care about?
• Portlands Season of Service
• Be clear about resources you have to offer.
• Keep trying. Not every agency is a great fit.

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Florence, AL Charity Tracker

• Big StormBig problemsBig SolutionsBig Outcomes
• Created a VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in
  Disaster)
• Needed synergized, real-time communication system
• created Charity Tracker together
• 50 churches and agencies working together
• Tracking the amount of money and assistance
  given
• Reporting on all the needs and trends in
  benevolence
• Sharing information daily through online
  bulletin board
• Working together for the first time and working
  smarter
• Alerting one another of potential fraud or
  difficult cases
• Have a sense of unity help more people with
  less

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Florence, AL Charity Tracker
Churches
Other Community Agencies
American Red Cross
Salvation Army
United Way
Formed a VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in
Disaster)
Worked with Simon Solutions to create a better
communication tool
Charity Tracker Network (www.charitytracker.net)
a networked coalition of 50 agencies churches
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Collaboration Starts with YOU

• Know thyself!
• You must be able to clearly communicate your
  church or organizations mission, organizational
  structure and externally focused strengths and
  weaknesses.
• Individual Model Exercise
• DRAW a picture of your church/organization
  showing your current externally focused
  ministries and collaborations.
• Try to use only 10 words.
• Use colors shapes to show your CURRENT STATE
• After completing your drawing, show it to others
  at your table.

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Collaboration Continuumfrom The Collaboration
Challenge, by J. Austin

• Stage 1 Philanthropic
• Collaboration in the philanthropic stage is
  highly circumscribed in terms of resources
  deployed
• and points of interaction.- James Austin
• Few meetings and fewer individuals involved from
  top-level leadership.
• Expectations and investments are usually pretty
  narrowly defined.
• Great starting place, especially if it is an
  organization that has a very differing philosophy
  but you agree on a solution to a common problem.

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Collaboration Continuum

• Stage 2 Transactional
• In the transactional stage, organizations carry
• out their resource exchanges through specific
• activities. Engagements of the partners is more
• active and the value flow more significantly
  two-way.
• -James Austin, The Collaboration Challenge, pg 22
• Leaders exchange technical expertise
• Exchange resources to complete or communicate for
  a common project.
• Combine people to have greater impact.

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Collaboration Continuum

• Stage 3 Integrative
• Organizations begin to look like a highly
• integrated joint venture that is central to both
• organizations strategies. They have a
• mutual mission relationship. Austin, pg 26
• Extend beyond a project to meeting the long-term
  needs
• Intensified staff and lead volunteer interactions
  
• Creation of processes and procedures to manage
  complexity
• Broadened scope of joint activities and ventures
• Increased need for committed resources of time
  and money
•  

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Lincoln Village Ministry
Southwood PCA/Mark Stearns www.lincolnvillagemini
stry.com Philanthropic gave overhead
projectors Transactional churches offered
volunteer tutors Integrative volunteers attend
meetings with school staff, share files and even
have an office for volunteer leader. Students
achieved 2011 academic goals by the year 2007!
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What did you hear? What does it mean?
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Into the Meeting Room


Actions
Attitudes
www.wildworksgroup.com
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ACTIONS

Knowledge What does our group need to know to do
what we need to do? Both parties in collaboration
need to be willing to do research. Understanding
Is the knowledge we have in context of the
problem we have to solve? Both parties in
collaborative efforts must be willing to
understand the knowledge to create a
solution. Decision/Action Do we have the
ability to make the right decisions and take
action on them? For collaboration to successfully
happen, people must be empowered to take action.
www.WildWorksGroup.com

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ATTITUDES

Actions take longer if the right attitudes are
not in the room!
Presence Are each of us disciplined enough to
bring our full selves into the meeting? Sense of
Discovery Do we have a desire to learn,
experience and achieve more together than
apart? Work to Win Do each of us at the table
have a results-oriented attitude? This is being
willing to do whatever it takes to get to
solutions and understanding. www.WildWorksGrou
p.com
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Collaboration Simulation

• Pull out your independent model creations
• As a group, choose the most exciting project or
  program from those models
• Collaborate! Take the strengths from each of your
  models and leverage them to create something new
  or better.
• Draw your new COLLABORATIVE model on the large
  poster board.
• Make sure your model addresses these questions
• What were your new outcomes because you are
  partnering?
• What obstacles did you overcome to see success?
• What was your funding model?
• How did you provide collaborative leadership?

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Corroborating Evidence

Collaboration with other churches offers
corroborating evidence strengthening our
testimony of Jesus Christ. The Kingdom
work is bigger than any one of us, so it needs
every one of us. -Daniel Bernard