Eight Steps to a Partnership

Introduction

Partnering with external or internal organizations is a great lever for many a purpose. Overtime, Wikimedia organizations acquired a vast experience in dealing with other organizations, be it for content donations, training delivery, grants applications, etc. Partnerships was tackled as topic at Wikimedia Conference 2015 in Berlin and a follow-up session took place at Wikimania 2015 in Mexico. To gather the outputs of these two working sessions and make them accessible to anyone in our movement, the following table was designed, with 2 objectives :

encapsulate what needs to be taken into account when dealing with partners (steps, processes, tools)
create a “filter” to address this topic and identify what already exists in our movement, to build on each other’s experience

This is still a work in progress, please feel free to comment/amend! Anne-Laure WMFr (talk) 15:41, 24 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

8 Steps to Partnership

KEY STEPS	CONCRETE ACTIONS	POTENTIAL OBSTACLES	TOOLS to support the different steps

STEP 1: Preliminary Work You may have - or may have not yet - identify WHY you need to partner with other organisations. Raising money to fund your action plan, get an easier access to content to enrich Wikimedia projects, jointly answer a call for project, acquire skills your organization lacks … It might also be that you’re not looking for anyone to partner with but the opportunity arises: how do you handle it?	Start with your own annual plan: What are the priorities for my organization, and (where) do I need help from external parties? Make a list of possible partners (longlist) regarding the issue/opportunity you’ve identified Define criteria (alignment, impact, …) to prioritize which actions / partnership you want to move forward with		SWOT FDC proposal Annual Compass (WMDE) Governmental directory / infos database (WMSE) Network mapping Partners’ network Partnership Policy (WMFR) Prioritization Grid (WMFR)
STEP 2: Getting to know each other	Learn and educate about each other First contact: be ready to answer many silly questions and obstacles Formal meeting: assess the needs in advance	Lack of understanding	Initial meeting: Towards a successful GLAM partnership Annual Report Charter presenting your philosophy and values (WMFR) Case studies, examples, successful stories, impacts & statistics adapted to the type of partner Good / clear documentation to hand in Partners’ communication material (website, annual report, etc.) Institutional reports
This is an empiric and step-by-step process. The first step is for partners to usually slowly get to understand what’s your organization about, what is its role, etc. According to their first contact with someone from your organization, there might be a need to have more / other people on board.
STEP 3: Find common ground to work together	Identify level of alignment in terms of values Identify mutual interests (be ready to accept the answer “none”) Identify potential common projects Assess the ideas with the highest potential Identify potential obstacles / limitations (e.g. legal things preventing your shared work, …) ⇒ Risk management		Key Success Factors for an effective relationship?
STEP 4: Define a project scope and a project team	Gather an enthusiastic and driven project team Identify needs on both sides Define / negotiate roles and responsibilities (project leaders, project team, sponsor, steering committee, etc. ) for each organization Think about sustainability overtime	Several counterparts in one single organization Technical issue when project enabled (database, money, agreement details)	Project roles (Learning Pattern) A short guide to bad projects (Learning Pattern) Organizations' charts, Who’s who? Define communication means in a concrete way
During the whole process, a key question can arise: are volunteers interested in the partnership scope and when should they be involved (this is valid especially for Wikimedia organizations with staff).
STEP 5: Define a formalized executive plan	Prepare project plan with SMART objectives, costs, timeline, roles & staffing Define the expected output(s) with the partner Start planning your evaluation process so all partners will be able to see how successful the project has been Formalise an agreement		Project planning template Setting achievable goals Global Metrics (WMF) Writing an agreement (Learning Pattern) How to develop SMART objectives (Learning Pattern) Choosing program goals and measures (WMF) Surveys at different point (Learning Pattern)
STEP 6: Communicate	Internally: Document partner communication and meetings Externally: Map your targets (internal to the movement, external, (inter-) national, etc.) Map your channels & opportunities Establish a communication roadmap		Discussion documentation (Learning Pattern) Sharing information with the Wikimedia movement (Learning Pattern) Blog post; event for signature of the agreement; Wikipage → Facebook Credit authors and partners (Learning Pattern) Leverage communication through partners' communication channels + tools + network
STEP 7: Evaluate There are several items to be evaluated when monitoring a partnership: concrete outputs vs. initial goals partnership flow / process overall satisfaction of partners unexpected impacts			Wikimetrics (statistics from Wiki projects) General information on Surveys (Learning Pattern) Surveys at different point (Learning Pattern) Partners satisfaction questionnaire (WMFR) Interviews with project partners (Learning Pattern)
STEP 8: Improve & develop