The Partnership Playbook: A rubric for understanding partnership levels
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EmailCommunity partnerships exist along a spectrum, ranging from simple networking to deep collaboration. Each level serves a purpose, but how do you determine where your partnership falls?
The concept of partnership levels provides helpful insight into how organizations work together, but knowing the levels is only the first step. Putting that understanding into practice can be a little more challenging. The Partnership Collaboration Rubric, based on the Collaboration Framework created by the National Network for Collaboration, provides a structured way to assess partnerships and helps individuals and teams move from general awareness toward intentional action.
The rubric can be used individually as a quick check-in for reporting purposes, or as a group tool to spark conversation among partners. When used collectively, it can help highlight differences in perception, uncover assumptions and create space for more intentional decision-making about how to move the partnership forward. By shifting from assumption to a shared understanding, partnerships can better match the level of effort to the work they aim to accomplish.
Frameworks are helpful but can feel a bit overwhelming at times. It is important to remember that higher levels of partnerships are not always better. Different goals, capacities and community needs may require different levels of engagement. Effective partnerships align the level of partnerships with the work being accomplished. This rubric gives you something more concrete to help you pause and ask yourself:
- What does this partnership look like in practice?
- How are decisions being made?
- How committed are the organizations involved?
How to use the rubric
The rubric looks at six key areas of a community partnership: purpose, decision making, roles and structure, communication, resource sharing and commitment. Within each box, short descriptions align with the five levels of partnership, from networking to collaboration.
Review each row at a time and choose the description that best fits your current partnership. Once completed, step back and look for patterns.
Most partnerships will span multiple levels, and that is expected. Focus on where responses cluster. That will help you determine the level that best reflects your partnership.
Reflection
After completing the rubric, reflect on these questions:
- Where do your responses cluster?
- Are all partners likely to rate the partnership at the same level?
- Does the current level of partnership match the goals of the work?
- Are there areas where greater alignment could strengthen the partnership?
- What would need to change if partners wanted to move to a different level of partnership?
Partnerships are constantly evolving. They shift over time based on priorities, capacity and the needs of the community. Two organizations that occasionally exchange information about programs may be operating at the networking level. If those same organizations plan, implement and evaluate a long-term initiative while sharing responsibility for outcomes, they may be operating at the collaboration level.
This rubric is not meant to lock a partnership into a label, but to provide clarity and shared understanding. When alignment is clear, partnerships can operate with greater purpose. When it’s not, the rubric creates an opportunity to pause, adjust and move forward more intentionally.
To learn more about community partnerships, check out the rest of the Partnership Playbook Series:
- The Partnership Playbook: How partnerships make youth programs better!
- The Partnership Playbook: Types of partnerships
- The Partnership Playbook: Initiating a partnership
- The Partnership Playbook: Building a strong foundation with partners
- The Partnership Playbook: Driving successful partnerships through goal setting
- The Partnership Playbook: Continuous evaluation and improvement
- The Partnership Playbook: Identifying red flags in a community partnership
- The Partnership Playbook: Ending partnership with professionalism
- The Partnership Playbook: The five levels of community partnership
Michigan State University Extension relies heavily on community partnerships to increase the reach of the work we do. For more information about partnering with MSU Extension in your community, contact your local 4-H program coordinator.
