Is there a difference between a partnership and a collaboration? When forming partnerships, finances are mixed and the partners agree on how to manage their money and time. In a collaboration, the collaborators keep out of each other’s business and focus exclusively on the project at hand. Innumerable inventions and innovations have been made through the combined effort and ideas of two or more people working together.
Great collaborations in nonprofit organizations require solid, trusting partnerships.
Assistance League Coachella Valley is a skilled collaborator, excellent at forming partnerships. As defined above, collaborators focus on the project and partners bring the project together with time and financial support.
The good works of the ALCV chapter would not happen without the relationships that have been forged in the community. This 501(c)(3) nonprofit, with its 115 volunteers, relies on working closely with other entities in the valley. The projects ALCV supports focus on underserved school children, needy seniors in skilled nursing homes, military families, assault survivors and talented high school students needing an extra boost to further their performing arts studies.
ALCV collaborates with a variety of partners in the valley. These include the YMCA at 29 Palms Marine Base, the management and staff of four senior care facilities, Coachella Valley Rescue Mission, Partners Against Violence and the largest partners, the three Coachella Valley school districts.
This year the Operation School Bell program will provide school clothing for more than 5,000 students spread across the three school districts. The districts provide, through their school liaisons, individual requirements for each of the eligible children, so that when the child opens their bright blue bag of new clothing it contains the correct sizes of underwear, socks, their school’s logo t-shirts, new shoes and an age-appropriate hygiene kit.
Partnerships have also been formed with local businesses to assist with financial support.
Those partners include Vicky’s of Santa Fe, which for many years helped underwrite the high school performing arts sponsorship program, The Firm (the Palm Desert location of the chapter’s Resale Boutique) and La Quinta-based Desert Wine Shop. An active grant program helps fund the chapter programs and all monies raised stay in the valley. The local Chambers of Commerce have given the chapter a voice in the business community and honored the chapter by presenting ALCV with the 2023 Greater Coachella Valley Chamber Nonprofit of the Year Award.
The No. 1 goal in the chapter’s current strategic plan is to broaden the programs offered to the community. This also means identifying more partners as the group works to fulfill its mission to transform lives and strengthen the community.
The partnerships are working.
Sally Tilden is a member of the board of directors of Assistance League Coachella Valley and a chapter past president. She moved to Cathedral City 16 years ago after retiring from a management position with the Long Beach Symphony. Her email is [email protected]
