When the Toronto Community Foundation (TCF) launched Playing for Keeps on August 16, it had the impressive backing of organizations and individuals from the private, public and nonprofit sectors. Leveraging the 2012 Ontario Summer Games and the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games, the project’s energetic mission is to develop healthier, more active and connected communities through play. And, as president and CEO Rahul Bhardwaj explains, the initiative’s diverse partnership — including the Ontario Trillium Foundation, KPMG, Sun Life Financial and the Heart & Stroke Foundation — makes it especially impactful and fortuitous.

Cross-sectoral collaboration technically offers a fairly practical solution to solving social challenges. If every sector has unique strengths, so goes the argument, if we’re facing a reality of limited resources and a heightened appreciation for how community issues impact us all, working together certainly seems a laudable goal. But is it realistic? Can varied interests inspire common agendas toward meeting social challenges? Perhaps.

Time is right

“I think there’s an extraordinary opportunity to find out,” says Bhardwaj. “The stars are aligned now like they’ve never been before.” After all, both the nonprofit and public sectors today value financial and social bottom lines. And the private sector, traditionally focused on providing shareholder value, is now seeing emerging notions of corporate shared value and corporate social responsibility. “So while 25 years ago it was difficult to get three pillars of society to be able to have a discussion on moving a social mission, now we have an alignment of bottom lines.”

Another interesting evolution which may impact the discourse is the form of engagement a growing number of corporations are looking for. In the past, a company’s biggest resource was financial but today it’s their people and technical expertise,” explains Mike Meadows, senior manager of Corporate Citizenship at Imagine Canada. “The new corporate model needs to recognize it’s not always about money, there are tremendous talents that they can bring to bear.”

Sears Canada, for example, is looking beyond transactional relationships in its youth development initiatives. Aside from providing much-needed funding for after-school programs, the company responds to community needs through store and employee engagement and other resources.

Partnership model

Dedicated to a “three P” partnership model, involving the public, private and philanthropic sectors, TCF supports a number of projects that convene around solutions to issues, then engages in partnerships with the public and private sector. Maple Leaf Sports, for instance, played an important role in Recipe for Community, a program that engages neighbourhood residents to improve the sense of belonging and safety in their communities. And collaboration was central to the success of Arts on Track, a revitalization of Toronto’s museum subway station.

Partnerships in the cultural sector are seeing a heightened boost too thanks to artsVest™. An initiative of Business for the Arts, supported by Canadian Heritage and provincial and municipal partners, artsVest™ is a matching grant incentive and corporate sponsorship training program. Providing small to mid-sized arts and culture organizations with the expertise and tools needed to develop sponsorship opportunities with local business, the program is currently running in nine communities across Canada. “It’s about building synergy in community and bridging that gap between corporations and the arts,” explains national program manager Laura Adlers.

Moving the yardstick

And then there’s the inspiring cross-sectoral collaboration taking place in New Brunswick thanks, in large part, to the Community Action Group on Homelessness, a network of civic nonprofits and government leaders. The group — a project of the Canadian Mental Health Association and funded by the Federal Homelessness Partnering Strategy — has made impressive inroads in reducing homelessness, including the creation of affordable housing units in the province by private and nonprofit developers. The corporate community is supporting the efforts financially and through expertise and planning, explains coordinator Timothy Ross, adding the time is ripe for more partnerships like his.

“In Canada we’re seeing some great leadership in terms of cross-sectoral collaboration not only in managing and reducing homelessness but in keeping communities on track to end it,” he says, offering the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness as another initiative helping communities mobilize resources and partnerships. “So long as you look at a complex issue like this only from an organizational perspective, you’re not going to move the yardstick forward.”

That’s true not only when tackling homelessness. “Creating outcomes that work for people and the planet is complex,” agrees Alison Henning, communications and marketing manager at Tides Canada. “That’s why we work to bring different stakeholders together to build practical and durable solutions to tough problems.” To wit: the organization’s energy team engages everyone from scientists, business executives, religious groups and union leaders in conversations around building a prosperous clean-energy future for Canada and how best to work with government to design a national energy strategy.

Even groups once at odds are now finding reasons to collaborate. It just seems to make sense. Take the work by environmental organizations and the forest sector with The Great Bear Rainforest and Boreal Forest. “By working together, forest companies, First Nations, governments, environmental groups and others are building new approaches to managing forests in a way that works for the economy, our communities and our environment,” Henning explains.

Partnerships in advocacy

It’s a reality Blue Green Canada would probably understand. An alliance between Canadian labour unions, environmental and civil society organizations, the group promotes solutions to environmental issues with employment and economic benefits. “There’s a tendency to pit the environment against the economy suggesting we have to choose between creating jobs or cutting emissions,” says manager Keith Brooks. “But we fundamentally disagree with that assertion, there’s a lot of evidence to show we can do both.”

Case in point: Ontario’s Green Energy Act. It just so happens, Environmental Defence — one of Blue Green Canada’s original founders — joined various stakeholders to form the Green Energy Act Alliance, a grassroots coalition that helped the legislation come to force. Considering the potential for collaborations to influence policy, should more organizations adopt that approach? “In today’s context there’s less and less room for direct advocacy,” says Ross, adding the best way to change policy—and attract investment to your cause— is by demonstrating success and innovation.

That’s not always easy, of course. Just ask Ross who’s trying to find support for Housing First, an approach to ending homelessness that involves providing affordable homes and supports without usual pre-conditions like sobriety and jobs. The initiative has yet to garner the attention of the public policy landscape, despite demonstrating its huge cost benefits (homeless people currently consume $130,000 a year of social services versus $24,000 under Housing First, Ross claims).

Challenges

Yes, getting sectors to work together has its challenges. For one thing, there’s the need to build trust and to be okay with compromise. Though an organization may back government on a proposed legislation and corporations in their efforts, for example, that doesn’t mean they’re satisfied. “We want more than what the government has in their long-term energy plan,” Brooks offers. “And we think wind industry could have done a greater job engaging the public when it came to [promoting] wind farms; that’s problematic.” Bottom line, he adds with a verbal shrug: “You can’t support things and yet not be critical. But walking that line is a definite challenge.”

Balancing interests is no simple feat. “You just have to be honest about what you’re after but still listen to other stakeholders,” Brooks offers, relating how the organization teamed up with a consortium of wind companies and developers with the hope of creating the first offshore windfarm in the great lakes, creating a test case for green jobs in Hamilton in the process. Unfortunately, after much effort, the project didn’t move forward. A missed opportunity, he claims. “We don’t always get what we’re after and it can be disheartening.”

Everyone comes in with different reasons, he admits, a reality that seems to have its own dedicated seat at cross-sectoral meetings. “But this failure doesn’t mean we’ll stop working with government,” he quickly adds. It’s all a learning experience. “The point is that even when it looks like a good opportunity and it looks like everyone is aligned, sometimes things still don’t materialize as you hoped.”

Word to the wise

If you do pursue partnerships, make sure you’re in it for the right reasons, says Ross. “Don’t just do cross-sector collaboration for the sake of doing it.” All experts agree the best approach is to look for sweet spots — aligned interests across all sectors. The sweet spot around homelessness, for instance, is the fact that business as usual (i.e. overuse of shelters, hospitals, jails) is simply too expensive and doesn’t reduce homelessness. Every sector is impacted— and thus invested in change.

Remember there’s no cookie cutter approach, says Bhardwaj. And keep the big picture in your sight always. “You want to make sure you have alignment of strategic priorities and that everyone has ownership in the project.” Collaborations, by nature, are messy affairs, he adds, requiring flexibility. “Because of the intricate and multi-layered nature of these collaborations, you need partners who are trustworthy, patient and who communicate well.”

Manage expectations and remain realistic but don’t let realism dampen your dreams, Bhardwaj cautions. And no matter how challenging, remember that the best solutions are born of collaboration, says Henning, adding, “be prepared to move beyond the rhetoric, beyond entrenched interests to really hear the diverse perspectives.”

And do your research. Before the first meeting, ask yourself: What is the organization trying to accomplish? Are they trying to broaden their reach? What barriers are they facing? What are their motivations? Profile the potential partner group, its relevant holdings, directors, etc. Then, says Henning, “assess where you can see alignment, and spend a bit of time brainstorming how helping them reach their goals can also help you reach your own.”

Elisa Birnbaum is a freelance journalist, producer and communications consultant living in Toronto. She is president of Elle Communications and co-founder of SEE Change Magazine and can be reached at: info@ellecommunications.ca.

Photos (from top) by Bill Petro via Playing for Keeps. All photos used with permission.

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