We Are Stronger Together Than Alone

Last summer I was reminded why the work we do matters.

I got to work with a college access organization to explore transformational partnerships and really define what a partnership can look like in practice.

The challenge: there are a myriad of organizations doing important work around college access, operating in silos. We explored the landscape and built out different partnership approaches. The appetite for collaboration was there, we just needed to help organizations see what’s possible through shared capabilities, technologies, or expanded channels to students.

What became clear is that nonprofits have far more partnership options than they realize. The creativity is there. The partners are there. What’s often missing is just a system-level view: someone to help organizations see what’s possible and actually get there.

The need for collaboration has never been more urgent. America is slipping, with challenges from K-12 affecting college readiness. Twelfth grade reading and math scores continue to decline and a third of eighth graders now perform below basic level in reading. College affordability remains a persistent crisis. Students from lowest income families pay about a third of their annual incomes towards college costs, and only a fifth of lowest income families are able to provide financial support to their kids. Moreover, over 36 million Americans have some college experience but no credential, nearly 40% of student who enroll never complete a degree

The education sector has always been fragmented, and students are the ones that pay the price. College access and readiness programs addressing these problems show real promise, but operate in isolation when they can benefit from coordination and scale. For example, when states and institutions commit to coordinated action the results speak for themselves.

When nonprofits start seriously asking, ‘what can we accomplish together that we cannot do alone?’, the real transformation becomes possible. It’s messy, requires letting go of some control, but the impact is worth it.