Seeding the Ground for Tri-Sector Alliances Before the Crisis Hits
Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR)
COVID-19 has forced business, government, and philanthropy to combine forces quickly to respond to community needs. Here are five principles for making organic, public-private alliances an ongoing force for change.
As with any crisis, COVID-19 has fostered resourcefulness, creativity, and activism in unexpected places. One clear area has been organically formed collaboration across business, government, and philanthropy, not just in traditionally crafted public-private partnerships, but collaborations sprouting from the grassroots, region by region, to respond to urgent community needs like supply chains for hospitals and food distribution to low-income, out-of-school students. One organic alliance involved the governor of Massachusetts enlisting the New England Patriots to scramble their jet to pick up protective gear for state-based hospitals from China. And on Long Island, we saw a regional convener of human service providers team up with an international nonprofit addressing hunger and local restaurants in the area to deliver meals to people in need.
