The Collaboration Prize is designed to inspire cooperation among nonprofit organizations. Recognizing the efficiencies gained from working together, the Prize shines a spotlight on collaborations among two or more nonprofit organizations that each would otherwise provide the same or similar programs or services and compete for clients, financial resources, or staff. In the summer of 2008, over 600 nominations were received for the inaugural year of the Prize. Each nomination was evaluated according to a comprehensive scoring rubric. The collaborations that advanced demonstrated quantifiable evidence that they achieved exceptional impact and substantially eliminated the duplication of efforts through programmatic collaborations, administrative consolidation, or other joint activities.
All submissions were reviewed for eligibility by La Piana Consulting, one of the nation’s leading management and consulting firms dedicated to helping nonprofits and foundations become stronger and more effective through collaboration. The recipient of the $250,000 award was chosen by a Final Selection Panel, which was chaired by Sterling Speirn, president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and included representatives of both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.
The Collaboration Prize was created by the Lodestar Foundation. The mission of the Lodestar Foundation is to maximize the growth and impact of philanthropy. This mission is fulfilled, in part, by supporting collaborations that increase impact and eliminate duplication of efforts among nonprofits that would otherwise compete. In support of this mission, Lodestar seeks to identify achievements in collaboration as models for inspiration and replication in the nonprofit world. The Prize also seeks to build an information base of effective practice models that can be studied and used by academics, nonprofit leaders, and grantmakers to inspire and advance their work. True to the spirit of collaboration, the Lodestar Foundation has partnered with the AIM Alliance on these efforts.
