Introduction

TOOLBOX FOR EVALUATING PARTNERSHIPS
BETWEEN COMPANIES AND CITIZENS’ ORGANISATIONS

Foreword
This toolbox is the result of a European project, “Lisbon minus 3: Evaluating CSR partnerships”, carried out by the Active Citizenship Foundation (FONDACA is an Italian Foundation supporting the development of civic activism in Europe through social research, advanced training, cultural dialogue and the mobilization of resource - www.fondaca.org) and Active Citizenship Network (ACN Cittadinanzattiva’s European program, is a network of about 80 citizens’ organisations from 30 countries aimed at contributing to the development of a European Active Citizenship - www.activecitizenship.net) in 2007 and co-financed by DG Employment and Social Affairs of the European Commission, and UniCredit Group. Its main goal was to develop a methodology and a tools for evaluating partnerships between companies and citizens’ organisations. Evaluating specifically the partnership is fundamental for understanding its strengths and weaknesses in order to improve and better the partnership.
The idea for this project came from a previous study carried out in 2005-2006 by FONDACA and ACN on successful partnerships between private companies and citizens’ organisations in Europe (“Citizens as CSR partners”, final report “Not Alone”  – see ANNEX 1 for the conclusions), which showed a lack of an appropriate and effective partnership evaluation, meaning a structured and shared process with defined indicators, in the majority of cases. But “Citizens as CSR partners” not only determined Lisbon minus 3 objective. The 36 examples of partnerships analysed in that study have been the basis for the definition of the present evaluation methodology, especially the indicators and scores, which therefore shape a concrete model of partnership and not a theoretical one.
The evaluation methodology and respective toolbox was built thanks to:

  • FONDACA, ACN and the 14 partners of the project that produced and improved the draft of indicators, methodology and evaluation tools to be tested in the various countries (January to June 2007);
  • the contributions of 28 companies and civic organisations that tested the methodology on their partnership in 14 European countries - Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom - between July and September 2007 (ANNEX 2);
  • the numerous comments from the 80 participants in the Lisbon seminar on 20 and 21 September 2007 (ANNEX 3).

What do we mean when we use the word partnership?
According to the Copenhagen Centre definition, partnerships refer to “People and organisations coming from some public, private and civic entities/bodies which are engaged in voluntary, mutually beneficial and innovative relations with the aim of dealing/pursuing with social goals by putting together their own resources and competencies.”  For the purpose of this project, which only deals with civic/private partnerships, it can be summarized as relationships in which civic organisations and companies share objectives, resources, responsibilities and risks.
The main features of civic/private partnerships are the following:

  • They pursue general interest goals through common actions;
  • They are innovative, i.e. they promote new approaches to existing problems and opportunities;
  • They involve two or more bodies/actors coming from civil society and the private sector;
  • They are voluntary, i.e. the collaboration shall not result from the compliance to laws or regulations;
  • They are based on joint investments and produce mutual benefits, i.e. each partner contributes with its own resources and benefits from the results of the partnership, supporting the costs and assuming the risks its involves;
  • They create an added-value, i.e. through their collaboration the partners produce a result that none of them would have been able to obtain on its own.

Therefore, we can not define as partnerships relationships based only on:

  • Dialogue, where citizens’ organisations address “inputs” to companies and companies give them a feedback and take these inputs into account;
  • Collaboration, where companies and citizens’ organisations have convergent objectives that can be reached through their support or coordination.

The different EVALUATION TOOLS
The toolbox is composed of the following instruments:

  • TOOL A: The Guidelines for the Evaluation process;
  • TOOL B1: The full version of the Matrix for the Evaluation of the Partnerships;
  • TOOL B2: The short version of the Matrix for the Evaluation of the Partnerships;
  • TOOL C1a:Civic Organisation Scores and Diamond;
  • TOOL C1b: Company Scores and Diamond;
  • TOOL C1: Shared Scores and Diamond;
  • TOOL D: The Evaluation Output: lessons learned and future commitments.

The evaluation process is based on 4 main instruments (A,B,C,D):
1. TOOL A: The Guidelines that explain how to use the other evaluation tools and will lead the partners through the different steps of the evaluation process.
2. TOOL B: A matrix with indicators divided into 4 dimensions, which correspond to the different phases of the partnership development:

  • DIMENSION 1: PARTNERSHIP BASES;
  • DIMENSION 2: PARTNERSHIP BUILDING;
  • DIMENSION 3: PARTNERSHIP MANAGEMENT;
  • DIMENSION 4: PARTNERSHIP’S EFFECTS.

The partners will use each indicator to evaluate the partnership giving a score from 0 to 3, first on an individual basis and then together in a joint meeting (see TOOL A for a more detailed explanation).
Two versions of the matrix have been produced to take into account the various dimensions of the organisations/companies which may use the evaluation methodology. The full version of the matrix (TOOL B1) contains 35 indicators while shorter version (TOOL B2) has 24. The short version could be used as the first experience in evaluating the partnership though it is advisable to use the full version for a more in depth analysis. 
3. TOOL C: A diamond that will represent graphically the strengths and weaknesses of the partnership. The 4 points of the diamond will embody the 4 dimensions of the partnership. It will be illustrated automatically by inserting the partnership scores in TOOL C1 (see TOOL A for a more detailed explanation).
4. TOOL D: A new “partnership contract” that will result from the lessons learned and future commitments contained in this tool. This instrument is essential because it will help the partners draw the conclusions of the evaluation process and “restart” or continue their partnership on new and improved bases.

Recommendations in implementing the evaluation process
1. When?
The evaluation can start whenever partners decide to do it. However, it will be possible to evaluate the 4 dimensions only if the partnership is already “mature”, i.e. when it starts to produce the first effects. On the other hand, it is highly advisable to carry out the evaluation process while the partnership is still active because one of the main results should be the improvement of the partnership.
The evaluation can be carried out just once or on a regular basis. The partners should decide this by taking into account the effects of the first evaluation, as well as the time and resources available.
2. How?
The methodology and the evaluation tools have been conceived to be used by the partnership actors on their own. However, it could be advisable to involve an external facilitator, especially for the first evaluation and specifically for the joint evaluation meeting to help partners reach agreement on a common scoring of the indicators. Once again, the decision will belong to the partners according to the resources available.