Like any other business, nonprofit organizations spend a lot of time thinking about how to differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace. How are they helping feed the homeless or heal the sick? What makes what they do and how they do it unique and worthy of support?

This type of inward thinking is critical in developing impactful marketing and fundraising solicitations. However, when your goal is making real, lasting change, it is just as important to look outside of your organization.

But the bigger the goal, the greater the challenge and the more resources required to reach it. No one organization can single-handedly make the needed advancements in research, give everyone the timely, quality care they need and create the systemic changes to the health care system necessary to cut breast cancer deaths by any significant amount.

Here are three situations where such collaboration with partners is essential to reaching your big goal:

  • Public Policy Advocacy: Movement on any public policy issue, whether it is a change to a regulation or funding for a program, requires a significant push by organizations working together.
  • Providing Focus And Leveraging Resources: While large partnerships are good at driving general funding for cancer research, it is often important to have partnerships with other nonprofits, particularly patient advocacy organizations that are focused on providing leadership to address a specific challenge.
  • Systemic Change: Addressing the myriad of needs within a local community requires all local stakeholders, from other nonprofits to health care providers, partnering together to address how our fractured system creates gaps in access and barriers to receiving timely, quality care.

Read the full article about nonprofit collaboration by Paula Schneider at Forbes.