Nonprofit Collaboration Database Serves as Repository of Model Collaborations

Lodestar initiated a project called The Collaboration Prize in 2009 (with two subsequent iterations in 2011 and 2017) as a way to collect models of nonprofit collaboration to inform and inspire the sector to think about permanent collaboration as a smart capacity-building tool. The project netted more than 650 descriptions of successful collaborations. We then created a database, the Nonprofit Collaboration Database, a broad-based database searchable by a wide variety of categories and characteristics, and partnered with the Foundation Center (now Candid) to house the database within Candid’s Collaboration Hub, a portal that contains case studies, podcasts, videos, and resources on collaborations, mergers, and joint programming. The Nonprofit Collaboration Database is the primary repository of models of permanent collaboration for the sector.  The Lodestar Foundation invested more than $2 million in the project, including grants to winners and finalists for The Collaboration Prize.

Winners of The Collaboration Prize were:

  • Adoption Coalition of Texas
  • Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh
  • Museum of Nature and Science
  • YMCA/JCC of Toledo

Finalists for The Collaboration Prize were:

  • Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL)
  • Christopher House
  • Community Voice Mail Federation
  • CP Rochester
  • Feed More, Inc.
  • Graduate! Philadelphia
  • Gulf Coast Consortia
  • Historic Germantown Preserved
  • Multi-Agency Alliance for Children, Inc.
  • Network for Good
  • P S Arts
  • STAND! For Families Free of Violence
  • Westside Infant-Family Network
  • Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (WAICU)

Grant Information

Grant Amount: $2,000,000

Year Granted: 2017

Timeframe: Grant awarded over multiple years

Grantee: Foundation Center

Location: National

Grantee Website: Collaboration Hub