You’d think that in 2010, 65 years after the end of the Second World War, that the word collaboration would have been finally purged of all the pejorative connotations it took on thanks to the Vichy-France administration and other ‘collaborators’ who aided and abetted the Nazis* under occupation. By and large of course, it has. But does the word collaboration still have currency as being “an intellectual endeavour that is creative in nature – by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus”?
[* I realise that I have also scuppered any credibility this article may have professed to have by broaching Godwin’s law in the first sentence but please read on regardless...]
During my time working for a number of different charities in the UK and abroad, the notion of collaboration came up often. As service offerings, campaigning scope and fundraising ambitions grew, the boundaries between who did what and why became increasingly unclear. Sooner or later the question asked itself, when does collaboration impact on competition?
By and large campaigners are likely to work together across organisations as they can only bolster their political influence by presenting a united, multi-charity offering. Service delivery teams too, might see the benefit of developing combined offerings between partners to create efficiencies and broaden their reach. Fundraisers? Less so, due to the inherently competitive nature of the work but there are groups out there (like the Digital Fundraising Forum run by Sarah Webb at the British Red Cross).
However, one area which has blossomed in terms of collaboration and partnership is that of digital. It’s unsurprising too as it is an innate discipline which spans every branch of an organisation. It is by its very nature a collaborative process (some of the time, obviously there are moments when it can feel like an unloved production line). Just look at what’s already out there in terms of people sharing their knowledge and best practice.
You’ve got Drupal for NGOs, the Fairsay E-Campaigning Forum and the NFPTweetups, to name but a few of the collectives, both online and offline, that have blossomed in the last few years. These groups have brought together charities and NGOs that may otherwise have had nothing to do with each other and forged alliances across the business, using digital as the initial touchpoint.
We hope Becauseitsgood.org will be another valuable string to that bow. We will be pulling together the brightest minds in the sector, as well as digital experts outside of it, to cough up challenging insight, contentious opinion and celebratory case studies. So please join us and contribute to the conversations, because without your involvement it’s not really collaboration at all, just another online vanity tool for all those narcissists out there.
Like me.
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