Economic Development Depends Upon Nonprofit and Government Collaboration

Look at the system of organizations serving the economic development needs of your area. What do you see? Chances are that most, if not all, of these organizations are either nonprofit or governmental in nature.

Many conflicts occur between the two types of ED organizations. Also, a great deal of cooperation and collaboration occur between the two. Each needs the other to succeed. For example, I see in many communities that chambers of commerce and other nonprofit development organizations can initiate and bring about local public policy changes that local government could never accomplish because it (government) is on the inside and the system cannot change itself.

We must find new and better ways to help nonprofit organizations and government work together in serving the ED needs of communities. This is an important issue for all of us, as long as the "market" does an insufficient job of economic development and "intervention" is needed by community institutions to bring about economic development.

You might find this article useful as you work to strengthen government and nonprofit collaboration in the ED arena.