Partnership vs. Ownership

When you need a solution for your organization, is it better to do it yourself or outsource it to another organization that is already doing it? When does the efficiency of partnership out weight the power of ownership to shape something specifically for your organization?

With the political situation still unsettled in Honduras, travel to communities has been hampered on days of protest to insure the safety of our staff. When work in the communities is put on hold, it means being flexible to take on new projects and to rearrange our schedules to continue making a difference while in the office. This week, I took on a side project of reviewing a list of organizations that work in Honduras to find possible avenues of collaboration and discover best practices that Global Brigades may also benefit from.

Many people criticize the non-profit industry for continuously re-creating the wheel by developing more organizations that do the same work, rather than working together. The health work that we do in Honduras is not an exception to this. As I was reviewing the list and studying the websites of each organization, I realized that there are many other organizations doing health work in Honduras. I found that many are doing the same work as Global Brigades, but even more so, organizations whose programs would compliment ours. I began to wonder why we weren’t already working with them.

During the two hour drive out to our pilot community health worker village today, I sat in the back of our pick-up truck, sharing my thoughts about NGO partnership with a recent graduate from UC Berkeley. Together, I as a business student and her as a pre-med student, we used our experiences in each area to brainstorm and discuss why it is that many organizations don’t collaborate, and more importantly how we, as Global Brigades, can do more to collaborate.

Our main take away was this: everyone in the field agrees that we’re all working together towards the same cause, yet there is a disagreement on how this should be done and want the power to be able to do it how they think is right. With the joy felt in helping others, many feel a sense of pride that their work is making a difference, and with that comes a crave for ownership to continue doing it their way. Sure, all organizations want to learn more about how they can increase their impact and help more, but most often, organizations want to do it themselves once they learn how.

During this conversation we came to agreement that we need more specialized physicians to come on Medical Brigades to provide specific treatments to the health problems plaguing our communities. All it would take is another volunteer to be dedicated to recruiting more doctors, surgeons, etc. because all of the logistics and infrastructure needed is already in place. But the real question is: do we do it ourselves or do we work with another NGO that already only recruits certified medical professionals for medical work in Honduras? How do you get two organizations with completely different models to work together for the same cause? How do you convince someone that you are a collaborator and not a competitor?