By Dr. Liz Shay, Senior Grants Development Consultant (Higher Education)
Whether it is through conversations with one of our grants consultants, other grant-seeking efforts, or completely outside of the grants space, organizations often realize that they should consider collaborating with institutes of higher education. These partnerships can open additional avenues to pursue different types of projects and work towards your organization’s mission-driven goals in new ways. Grant makers often favor collaborative efforts as they are seen as having a larger impact on the money invested in the project.
Regardless of why you started considering collaborating with an institute of higher education, navigating these conversations can often seem intimidating or complex. This article is a guide to the basic information you need to feel confident in pursuing partnerships with institutions.
Benefits for Your Organization
We are often asked why we recommend collaborations with institutes of higher education for certain projects. Beyond grant maker requirements for these partnerships, there are other benefits to your organization.
Additional Expertise
Institutes of higher education have many faculty and staff with specific areas of expertise that can complete the skills and knowledge within your organization. Most commonly, institutions of higher education provide expertise in research, instructional approaches, or workforce development techniques. Colleges and universities have many individuals with one or more of these areas of expertise across different fields. Here are a few examples of these types of collaborations:
- A K-12 school district may be interested in studying innovative educational techniques and evaluating their efficacy. A researcher from an institution with expertise in the research of education can help with this evaluation component while the K-12 school implements educational innovation.
- A healthcare system may want to provide new and more effective continuing medical education (CME) courses for their practitioners. The medical instructional faculty at an institution can be involved to help design and implement this curriculum.
- A government or community organization may be designing a new economic development initiative for their community. An institute of higher education can provide expertise in workforce development to provide short-term credentialing options to help residents get upskilled or reskilled in the project’s industries.
Grants Experience
If your organization is smaller or newer to grant-seeking, collaborating with an institute of higher education can also provide you with grant experience. Institutions are often robust grant-seekers with significant experience in applying for and receiving grant funding. They are also skilled in the grant management process once an award is in hand. This knowledge can be helpful for your organization in a couple of ways:
- They can provide guidance to improve your organization’s grant-seeking and grant-management policies and practices.
- Their proven track record can help lend additional strength to your grant proposals because they have a long history of successes that can be referenced in the application.
Building a Pipeline
Institutes of higher education are training the next generation of individuals entering the workforce. Collaboration with these schools can help build the pipeline for you to have skilled people to hire to work at your organization. For example:
- A healthcare system can collaborate with a medical school to develop and implement an innovative curriculum that helps students be at the cutting edge of medicine when they graduate.
- A high-needs K-12 school district can work on a student teaching program with an education school. This type of project gets student teachers into these K-12 classrooms, providing instructional support at the schools now and more awareness of how to effectively support students in similar schools once the future teachers graduate.
- A government or community organization can develop an internship partnership where higher education students can get real-world work experience at this organization. This collaboration builds the capacity of the organization to provide their programming as well as help the students better understand the work before entering their careers full-time.
Benefits for the Institution of Higher Education
When discussing potential collaborations with institutes of higher education, the most common question we get asked is about why a college or university would be interested in partnering with another organization. Although the reasons vary depending on institution and project type, here are a few of the benefits higher education entities get from collaborations.
Additional Research Opportunities
Many institutes of higher education have faculty conducting research. Although this is most common at 4-year research universities, where most or all faculty are doing some amount of research, even smaller institutions and 2-year colleges often have at least a few faculty pursuing research efforts. Depending on the field and the types of research being conducted, some questions are best addressed when partnering with other organizations. Whether it is access to particular data or patient populations, discussions with subject matter experts to better understand areas of difficulty, or transitioning from theory to practice, collaboration with other entities can open up new research questions for researchers and allow them to more fully explore their fields of interest.
Real-World Applications
One of the most common ways institutes of higher education collaborate with other organizations is that their researchers will be able to explore real-world applications for their work. Assessing their theories in the actual environments they will be used in allows for a better understanding of potential impacts and challenges. These findings will also help practitioners in the future maximize the efficacy of their work. For example:
- An education researcher studying ways to improve student engagement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses may want to collaborate with a K-12 school district to implement and evaluate these approaches in the classroom. Findings will then be able to help inspire future K-12 teachers as they develop their curricula.
- A medical researcher may want to explore the progression of a particular disease and the impacts of various interventions. Collaborating with a hospital system to work with their patients to try to improve outcomes can also help the researcher understand their research questions. In the future, their findings may be incorporated into standard medical practice.
- An engineering researcher developing hardware and software to manage complex transportation situations may benefit from a collaboration with a city. The researcher can use real-world data to refine their solutions and test them in the city’s transportation network, hopefully improving transit for the residents. Effective approaches can be replicated in other parts of the city’s transportation system or in other parts of the country.
Building a Pipeline
Institutes of higher education want to ensure that their students develop the skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in their chosen careers. Collaboration with other organizations can help instructors understand what the day-to-day job looks like for employees of that entity. The instructors can then apply this knowledge to refine their course materials to ensure that students are ready to fulfill those job roles. In other collaborations, organizations may explicitly discuss their needs for future employees with the college or university and be involved in the curriculum innovation. This process ensures alignment between what is being taught and what skills and knowledge students will need to get hired after graduating.
These collaborations can often also involve internships or job shadowing opportunities for students. This type of collaboration gives the students real-world experience in their chosen field. Other organizations also benefit from the mentorships and the chance to have additional people working to achieve their mission-driven goals.
Places to Start
Once you have decided that working with an institute of higher education will be beneficial for your project goals, determining the best person to reach out to is the next step. There are several different approaches you could take, depending on your organization and the type of project you are looking to implement. Below are a few of the most popular places to start.
People You Already Know
One of the best places to start is with people that you already know. If you (or someone else at your organization) already has a relationship with someone at the institute of higher education, reach out! Even if they are not the right person for the project you are working on, they may have relationships with relevant stakeholders. A warm introduction can go a long way towards moving forward with conversations about forming partnerships.
Individual Researchers
If you are working on a project that will require collaboration with one or more researchers, reach out to them directly. To find the best researcher, explore their websites. These are usually linked from the department web pages. They will include details about their research priorities, areas of interest, and contact information. Find a researcher who has areas of interest that align well with your proposed project.
Department Chairs and School Deans
Sometimes, faculty websites do not give you full details about the best fit for to whom to reach out. In this case, contact the department chair or school dean. Which of these to reach out to is dependent on the structure of the institution; start with the lowest level possible (AKA choose a department chair, if available, first). Although they frequently have many competing priorities and may not be able to respond directly, someone from their office may be able to connect you with a relevant researcher.
Grants Teams
Another avenue is to start with the grants teams at an institute of higher education. There are a few names/structures where you might find these individuals:
- Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) or Office of Sponsored Research (OSR): most often found at institutions with significant research. If there is also an Institutional Advancement Office or Foundation, then the OSP/OSR office usually handles federal (and perhaps state) funding.
- Institutional Advancement Office or institutional Foundation: most common type of grants team across all institutions. If there is also an Office of Sponsored Programs or Office of Sponsored Research, then Institutional Advancement or the foundation office usually handles foundation funding.
With some exceptions, mainly in the foundation grant funding space, these organizations do not write grants. However, they have a high-level understanding of the grants activities occurring at their institution and who is involved with various projects. Like with a department chair or school dean, this office may be able to connect you with a relevant person for the type of project you are proposing.
Community Partnerships Offices
Some institutions, especially larger ones, have Community Partnerships Offices. There can sometimes also be offices for specific types of community partnerships, such as digital equity or economic development. These offices are specifically designed to form and nurture partnerships with community organizations. They are also often involved in the implementation of community outreach projects. Use the contact information on their website to reach out and discuss potential collaborations. They may collaborate with you directly, or they may connect you with a relevant person for your type of project.
What to Include in Outreach
Now that you have determined who you want to reach out to, the next step is to craft your outreach message. Spending a bit of time on this part will help to improve your chances of getting a positive response. Although you want to keep this message short and focused, you also want to make sure that you include a few pieces of information.
Introduction to the Proposed Project
Give a brief description of what you are hoping to accomplish with this project. Think about this as similar to an elevator pitch or an abstract. No more than a few sentences, but enough to spark their interest.
Why They Should Care
This is the most important part of your message. Similar to sending a letter of intent to a grant maker, show them why the recipient should care. This understanding will demonstrate that you have thought about this potential partnership, you are serious, and your project is worth spending time on.
What You Bring to the Table
You also need to briefly explain your expertise and what you can contribute to the collaboration. You are looking for a partnership, not for them to just take over, so share the skills and knowledge that you will utilize in this effort.
Where They Can Help
Identify the gaps in skills and knowledge that you know need to be filled through this collaboration. Share what you need support with to accomplish the proposed project. This will give them a sense of what type of partnership you are looking for.
Invitation to Meet
A face-to-face conversation (either in-person or virtual) is key to forming relationships. Include an invitation to connect further to explore the potential partnership in more detail. You are looking for particular expertise, and part of that is in project formation, so also plan to discuss mutual goals and how each organization will contribute.
Conclusion and Tips for Success
Collaborating with institutes of higher education can help your organization pursue different types of projects and work towards your mission-driven goals. Colleges and universities also benefit from these partnerships through research applications and building a pipeline for their students. Consider forming and nurturing these collaborations at your organization. When starting this process, there are a few things to consider, as discussed below.
Be Patient
Institutes of higher education are often large organizations composed of many different departments and offices. Employees are quite busy and have many competing priorities. They may be interested in working with your organization, but other matters can distract them. Be patient, and do not get frustrated if things do not move as quickly as you hoped. It will likely take time and discussions with multiple people before you move forward with discussions about a partnership.
Form Strategic Partnerships
Although this article is discussing collaboration with institutes of higher education from the perspective of grant funding, strategic partnerships can be more beneficial for both organizations. Do not always start with a specific grant or deadline in mind. Instead, know what types of projects you are looking to accomplish and what skills and knowledge you will need from the institution. Start the conversations there and look to form long-term partnerships that work towards mission-driven goals for both organizations. Often, you will end up working on several grant-funded projects together over the course of a collaboration.
Use MOUs When Appropriate
Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) are legal documents that outline a partnership between two or more organizations. The text will describe what each organization is contributing to the collaboration and expectations of the partnership. The document should also be signed by the leadership of each organization, showing buy-in and commitment on the part of each member of the collaboration. Some grant makers require MOUs in application submissions, but even if they are not required, they are still good to have in your project planning. When you pursue funding for the project in the MOU, the division of funding between organizations will be based on the division of activities. Parts of each award will likely go to each organization to implement their efforts towards the project goals.