Real Partnerships

Most of the ideas around Social Source revolve around open, cooperative partnerships with key players in the nonprofit technology space. These partnerships are very much along the lines of the very simple kindergarten lesson: "Share".

Institutionally, it is critical (in a very practical way) that there be common, concrete interests. I like to think that if both organizations were going to independently invest their own resources in in doing a project, then that project is a good practical candidate for collaboration. But if you are a real go-getter, the fact you are willing to invest your own resources from the start tends to mean it is more efficient to do the project yourself rather than incur the overhead of a partnership.

How do you surmount this catch-22 and make close collaboration part of your organization DNA?