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PPPs enables them to more easily span across departments and agencies. Despite these differences, offices at all levels of government use a Those located inside a department suggested that it was in part a range of similar strategies to accomplish their missions. Prominent strategy to ensure sustainability during executive transitions (e.g., among them are demystifying the sectors, convening stakeholders, Denver). and leveraging resources. Each of these strategies helps to lower the transaction costs of partnership by creating an infrastructure for new The Office of Foundation Liaison for the State of Michigan is funded and ongoing engagement across sectors. primarily by the foundation community, though it receives some direct and in-kind funding from government. The philanthropic Demystifying the Sectors. Critical to enabling partnerships is liaison to the City of Newark is funded entirely by foundations that both sides understand each other and have reasonable in recognition of the city's budget constraints, as well as a desire expectations about what they are able to do. The offices can help to "maintain its independence." The Denver Office of Strategic to educate government about philanthropy and philanthropy about Partnerships and the two federal offices are funded exclusively by government. They also coach each side about how to work with the government. The Los Angeles Office of Strategic Partnerships is other, encourage the cultural change for working across boundaries, funded evenly by philanthropy and the city, not including the costs and share best practices with leaders on what it takes to work of office space, supplies, and pension and health benefits provided together effectively. By demystifying the sectors, the cultural and by city funds. institutional barriers to partner are lowered. A common organizational feature of the state and local offices is an advisory committee. These committees are an important mechanism for setting priorities for the offices, as they allow the philanthropic community—including those that fund the offices—to provide input and help to set the agenda. In contrast, the federal offices operate without an advisory committee because of rules regarding transparency and accountability. Because they are in many ways breaking new ground, federal offices have spent a substantial amount of time working with their general counsels to gain clarity on what is or is not acceptable in working with philanthropy and the broader private sector. Missions and Strategies Convening and Facilitating. Beyond education, the offices are able to stimulate conversations among diverse stakeholders— government agencies, foundations, nonprofits, and other critical constituencies—with the purpose of having them understand their mutual interests, exchange information, and recognize the opportunities for partnership. The offices focus on brokering relationships to spark partnerships. They typically do not devise, implement or manage partnerships. Leveraging Resources. Given their knowledge of both sectors, the offices help to identify resources in both government and philanthropy that might catalyze or support a particular project or initiative. This includes both financial resources, such as philanthropic grantmaking efforts that align with government priorities, and The primary mission of offices of strategic partnerships is to catalyze human resources, such as issue experts whose involvement might and accelerate effective philanthropic-government partnerships. add value. The offices help to create the conditions under which such While the focus is primarily on philanthropy, in some instances, such resources can be identified, matched, and leveraged more easily. as Denver and Los Angeles, there is a concerted effort to include the nonprofit community. The strategies used to achieve their missions Accomplishments in these offices vary, particularly from the local and state level when Offices of strategic partnerships note a number of important compared to the federal level. accomplishments that have resulted from their efforts. While At the state and local level, a common approach advanced by the offices is to develop a shared agenda between foundations and government that can lead to the identification of specific grounded in the missions, strategies, and settings of each office, collectively they demonstrate the potential of this institutional innovation to achieve greater impact. opportunities for working together. By contrast, federal offices do Offices at the state and local levels refer to a range of not work with a set group of foundations; they have no advisory accomplishments in the areas of capacity building, technical committee; and they do not make decisions jointly with the assistance, and leveraging of philanthropic and government funding. philanthropic community. They instead focus on creating platforms For instance, the Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships points and opportunities for information sharing that increase coordination to an ongoing series of workshops it created for nonprofits to and alignment of resources across the sectors so as to increase the develop cross-sectoral partnerships of their own. Follow-up surveys effectiveness of problem solving efforts. of workshop participants suggest that approximately 50 percent MAY/JUNE 2013 | www.thecro.com [24]