Collaboration Trap: M-O-N-E-Y

There are three big, heart-stopping, "watch-your-step" traps to avoid when building community. Attempts at coordination, cooperation and collaboration can take a turn south when these three elements are neglected. Learned from both experience (good and bad) as well as what we discovered from research and many interviews over the course of writing Raising the Village, the three traps are… money, burn out and territorial issues.

This week, lets look at the power of the green stuff (or gorgeous colourful cash in Canada). 

Money can be a difficult subject for many people to talk about. When we are referring to funds that support community, it often gets politicized and interlocked with power and influence. In the world of community not-for-profits, we don’t want it to be, but one of the biggest threats to sustained collaborative relationships is money.  Most social programs and services are funded in a patchwork way, stitched together from a variety of sources: government, charities, foundations, grants, local businesses, and consumers. Funding opportunities are usually created and distributed with narrow deliverables and strings attached.  

People either whine too much about money or don’t whine enough and take on a "make do," limiting attitude. Some people act irrational when money is dangled in front of them. How many people have experienced the end of the fiscal year rush when one-time only “pots of money” are grabbed at by organizations, using the trendy need or theme of the day or who you know?  The inconsistency of funding opportunities and allocation unavoidably creates the perception that funding is unpredictable and unfair. This perception feeds into the panic about funding.

Raising the Village Consulting helped set up one group process in which the agencies who were submitting a proposal to a funding competition were required to sit in a room with all the other organizations asking for money. While a tad awkward at times (!!) – proponents shared their ideas with passion rather than secretly submitting them. The entire group had the pleasure of hearing the many fantastic ideas and... at the end of the evening many of the proposals changed because they all heard the true priorities that lay beneath the proposals. Agencies that typically would have kept to themselves were inspired to engage with new partners. The excitement of how to help each other's great ideas was palpable. For example, two proposals were so similar that the agencies involved said, "lets do this together" and decided to submit a joint proposal – saving a ton of money and increasing the likelihood that they would both get a piece of the proverbial pie. Another organization said, you don't need to ask for "x" - we'll give that to you for free!

This sort of process takes practice and a huge dose of trust. Our hope is that processes like this can replace traditional funding competitions more often. We also believe strongly that community collaboratives can play a strong role in shaping community priorities, allocating community dollars and maximizing the use of the limited money out there.

Village Raising Question:

What are your tips to help AVOID the money trap when working in community?