Partnerships between social organizations: trust makes the wheel turn.

By Carola Matarazzo, Executive Director of the Bem Maior Movement, and Luiza Serpa, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Phi Institute

The country faces complex challenges – and consequently, so does the third sector – ranging from an increasing population in socioeconomic vulnerability to a scarcity of resources. In this scenario, the formation of partnerships between social organizations has become an increasingly common path.

Several issues are key to the success of collaborative work, most notably group cohesion and motivation to participate in the alliance. "Trust, vital for achieving flexible and efficient partnerships, as opposed to control mechanisms, has been one of the most important concepts," states Luiza Serpa, director of the PHI Institute.

This approach is directly related to the sector's pursuit of producing systemic, structural, and transformative changes on a larger scale. It requires openness and flexibility from each partner to review their practices and processes and relinquish control over the primary role. It also involves the need to increase efficiency in resource management and the understanding that none of the challenges we face as a society will be solved by the actions of just one organization. Collaboration is a great opportunity to practice humility.

As the relationship develops, the level of understanding and trust expands. This has been the case with the partnership between the Bem Maior Movement and the Phi Institute, which began in 2019, during the first edition of the Call for Proposals to support social organizations and community-based collectives: an evolving relationship, punctuated by a series of stages and exchanges negotiated and improved over time.

The first step? To build a shared vision and, from there, define an agenda that includes establishing priorities, responsibilities, and concrete goals.                           

Thus, with a dynamic structure, without a central power, we benefit from a rich exchange of already validated learnings, including work methodologies and criteria for analyzing results. We expand our networking and strengthen our capacity for action. “Trusted partnerships produce transformations truly capable of impacting the foundations of inequality and injustice,” declares Carola Matarazzo, executive director of the Bem Maior Movement   

See the projects:  https://movimentobemmaior.org.br/impacto/

Learn more about the Phi Institute: https://institutophi.org.br/

This article was originally published on the Estadão website.

Image Credit: Press Release/MBM