Subject Line: The partnership that survived its founder leaving — and why yours might not
The examples in this newsletter are drawn from real partnership experiences. Names and identifying details have been altered to protect privacy.
Who's This For
I'm writing this for anyone who has ever written a sustainability section in a grant proposal and wondered whether any of it was true.
You know the formula. "The partnership will be sustained through continued institutional commitment, diversified funding sources, and embedded organizational processes." The language is familiar because everyone uses it. And everyone uses it because it's what reviewers expect to read.
The problem is that most sustainability sections are aspirational rather than designed. They describe what you hope will happen, not what you've built to ensure it happens.
This issue is about designing sustainability into partnerships from the start, not adding it as a section at the end.