Highlighting our grantee Easterseals Blake Foundation through a Q&A with CEO Steve Guthrie:
Q: Your organization has been a part of a few sustained collaborations in recent years. How have the sustained collaborations you’ve been involved in impacted your organization and its service to the community?
A: At Easterseals Blake Foundation, sustained collaboration has allowed us to expand both our reach and our impact in ways that would have been difficult to accomplish independently. Through support from Arizona Together for Impact, we were able to thoughtfully navigate collaborations including our integration with Upward for Children and Families and The Mark Counseling.
These collaborations strengthened our ability to provide more coordinated, sustainable services for children, families, and vulnerable populations across Arizona. Rather than duplicating infrastructure or competing for limited resources, we were able to align missions, preserve valuable community programs, and create stronger long-term operational capacity.
In the case of Upward for Children and Families, the collaboration helped preserve an important early childhood education resource while expanding access to behavioral health services in the Phoenix Community. The process also challenged both organizations to think beyond institutional identity and focus instead on what would best serve children and families over the long term.
Q: What advice do you have for organizational leaders who might be considering exploring a sustained collaboration?
A: Organizations should not view collaboration as a sign of weakness. In many cases, it reflects maturity and strategic leadership. The nonprofit sector is being asked to solve increasingly complex problems with limited resources. Thoughtful collaboration can create stronger systems, reduce fragmentation, and improve outcomes for communities. It is also critical to engage boards early, communicate frequently, and invest in facilitation. Neutral third-party support can be invaluable in helping organizations navigate emotionally and operationally complex decisions.
Q: What should organizations look for in a sustained collaboration partner?
A: Mission alignment matters, but values alignment matters even more. Cultural compatibility is often underestimated. Operational systems can be integrated over time. Spreadsheets, legal agreements, and organizational charts are important, but collaboration ultimately succeeds or fails based on relationships, trust, communication, and shared vision.
Another lesson is that these processes almost always take longer and require more communication than expected. Staff may fear change. Boards may fear loss of identity. Community stakeholders may misunderstand the intent of the collaboration.
Q:What key takeaway or lesson learned can you share from your experiences working through multiple sustained collaboration processes?
A: Too often, nonprofits wait until financial distress or leadership instability forces urgent decisions. By then, organizations have fewer options and less capacity to engage thoughtfully. Arizona Together for Impact has been valuable because it recognizes that collaboration work requires time, facilitation, planning, and trust-building. These are capacity-building investments that can strengthen the nonprofit ecosystem for years to come.
