Partnering with Pact

Current Partners

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Partnering with Pact

Types of Partnerships
Pact partners with a broad range of organizations in our quest to improve the collective impact of our actions. Through the years, we have forged relationships with a wide variety of local and international nonprofit organizations, as well as public and private sector donor institutions. These relationships have spanned the spectrum from the more traditional, donor-recipient type of relationship to newer forms of partnership that are increasingly business-minded and based on collegial exchange, either with peer non-profit agencies or private sector companies. Three partnership approaches that we highlight are: Peer Partnerships, Corporate Partnerships and Public and Private Sector Donor Partnerships.

Peer Partnerships
Pact is committed to developing high-impact, mutually beneficial partnerships with other non-profit organizations from around the world. We recognize that through combining our respective strengths with peer organizations we are more consistently able to develop more compelling proposals and generate greater programmatic impact.

Pact embraces the shift from top-down, Northern-led development strategies toward more horizontal, Southern-Northern partnerships. We base these relationships on shared vision and values, and seek to ensure respect, equity, and mutual gain through our collective actions.

Through our peer partnerships we strive to leverage:

• Synergies that come from tapping into complementary skills, knowledge and experience
• Strengths from our local partners' relationships, networks and social capital
• Opportunities to develop more culturally and politically sensitive development approaches
• Local human resource talent and leadership
• More cost-effective delivery closer to end users
• Inter-organizational knowledge sharing and learning

The ImPact Alliance is one mechanism that Pact initiated to enhance our ongoing ability to partner with other capacity building service providers on a global scale to improve service quality and accessibility.

Corporate Partnerships
As corporations increase their support for social development programs through NGOs and community-based partners, Pact is ready to engage the private sector to implement strategic, results-based initiatives. Pact has developed partnerships with several corporations including the Cabot Corporation, Citigroup, Chevron, Levi Strauss and Microsoft.

The key to the development of such partnerships is finding the common interest and common benefit. This is done by determining at the outset each organization's interests and goals for the partnership.

In the case of Cabot Corporation and Pact/Indonesia it was an increased perception that Cabot/Indonesia is a "good corporate citizen" which responds to the needs of the local community. Thus, they asked Pact/Indonesia to design and manage a community awareness program for HIV/AIDS and street children. The gains were obvious to both Pact and Cabot, as Cabot could be confident that their funds were addressing a critical social issue and Pact received direct program support to do this.

The Citigroup partnership had a slightly different orientation: Pact had a growing reputation in Asia for its well-managed microfinance programs and was eager to apply this technology in Viet Nam. Citigroup had a global microfinance mandate and wanted to make inroads to a critical sector, young entrepreneurs. Thus Citigroup, Pact and the Government of Viet Nam launched the Banking on Youth Program, managed by Pact and jointly funded by Citigroup, Citibank Viet Nam and Pact/Inc.

These two examples illustrate two different, but equally valid types of corporate partnerships. Cabot and Pact Indonesia's program activities arose from an interest in being a good neighbor and Cabot was willing to follow Pact's program leads. The Citigroup partnership originated very specifically from a common program goal. As the global movement for corporate-community partnerships continues to take hold, the variations will become more interesting and hold even more promise for large-scale social change.

Public and Private Sector Donor Partnerships
Public sector partnerships have provided essential support for Pact's mission since our founding in 1971. Our first investment partner was the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Pact has continued to work closely with the Agency for many years in our highly successful efforts to: 1) create a favorable environment for civil society in developing countries; and 2) strengthen numerous local organizations. Pact has since opened its public sector funding base to include the World Bank and several United Nations agencies. We continue to actively explore opportunities for long-term collaboration with other public sector entities as well.

In comparison, our partnerships with private sector investors have developed much more recently. Independent foundations now provide important new insights and an increasing portion of our funding base. Long established foundations such as Ford, Packard and MacArthur have demonstrated a strong commitment to research and development of capacity building tools and to actively strengthening local organizations abroad. These foundations continue to provide us with the vital knowledge and financial resources needed to carry out our joint missions.