Collaborative Leadership: The Future of Nonprofit Contracting

Abstract

The cross-sector relationship between nonprofit organizations and government agencies has evolved over the past few decades, moving from a competitive model of contracting to a collaborative one, as shown in the literature. However, collaboration in the human service contracting system is a complicated endeavor. Nonprofit organizations are critical to the human service system, and implementing collaborative contracting arrangements from their perspective is a key component to the process. Founded on practitioner interviews, this research provides information from the nonprofit perspective on how to implement collaboration within the U.S. human service contracting system, a framework for understanding the elements in the contracting relationship, and recommendations for creating and sustaining collaborative contracting relationships. Subscribe to JNEL The cross-sector relationship between nonprofit organizations and government agencies has evolved over the past few decades, moving from a competitive model of contracting to a collaborative one, as shown in the literature. However, collaboration in the human service contracting system is a complicated endeavor. Nonprofit organizations are critical to the human service system, and implementing collaborative contracting arrangements from their perspective is a key component to the process. Founded on practitioner interviews, this research provides information from the nonprofit perspective on how to implement collaboration within the U.S. human service contracting system, a framework for understanding the elements in the contracting relationship, and recommendations for creating and sustaining collaborative contracting relationships.Subscribe to JNEL