Internationalization for voluntary organizations

We have talked quite a lot about building partnerships and its importance in the internationalisation process. But the question is: how do you build a partnership from scratch?

To begin with, we have to identify and search for potential partners for our project. We can conduct a local research or use tools like LinkedIn or Google to find who we are looking for: maybe similar organisations, legal counsellors, other NGOs… it depends on our needs or interests. The most important thing, however, is making the first call: contacting potential partners and explaining them your project can be tedious and difficult, but it is actually the fastest and easiest way to start creating your network. After that, it could be a good idea to conduct a meeting and specify together the ideas and questions related with your project.

When building partnerships, it is crucial to take into account your partner’s point of view: Is it going to benefit from the partnership? Is it interested at all in participating in your project? You need to select partners that fit best with your organisation and the given project you are starting in their country, as these kinds of partnerships will lastlonger and provide better results for both organisations.

Another important thing that you have to notice is that you will start working inside a partnership, not alone any more: this implies agendas, shared working plans, deadlines and commitment. Moreover, a follow up of the state of the project and the partnership itself would be ideal. A Quality Plan being the best option for this kind of projects.