In straitened financial times, pressures grow to seek partnerships and collaborations with other organisations.  But it’s not always easy. James Sinclair Taylor warns that there are a number of sticky legal issues around collaboration between large and small organisations.

The voluntary sector has a long history of collaboration.  However, our experience in facilitating these collaborations shows that there are major costs and difficulties which have prevented collaboration spreading further. These costs and difficulties are likely to be harder to surmount during a time when even the largest charity is facing major reductions in funding under service delivery.

Key issues are:

1. The costs. Collaboration is not an easy option.  It generally involves a significantly greater administrative and staff cost in setting up the collaboration, ensuring effective joint working, appropriate levels of quality and meeting funders’ demands, so collaboration increases the cost of delivery rather than reduces it.  This is a hard period in which to seek to extend collaboration.

2. The risks. Collaboration adds a whole new set of operational and strategic risks for both partners. Smaller partners face risks of: