People who have known me for a while have listened to me bang on before about charities wasting resources by not collaborating more with one another. So I was interested in an article contained in the Midlands edition of an Insider Media bulletin which contained the following paragraph:

"Earlier this year Coventry University joined forces with Birmingham City University and the University of Wolverhampton to launch the West Midlands Combined Universities (WMCU). This collaboration between three like-minded institutions is intended to provide the recently formed West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) with a powerful resource with which it can meet its objectives around skills, employment and productivity."

Now universities are well known for being competitive with one another; not least in competing for good quality students so why this level of co-operation and what can charities learn from this?

Well clearly they believe that together they can achieve more and benefit the local economy in a cost effective manner. So why cannot charities work together cost effectively to the benefit of their beneficiaries? Some charities already do so why not others? Are individual charities so unique that only they can help? Too many times I see charities working with common beneficiaries in complete isolation and this cannot be a good use of charitable funds or indeed make things easier for the potential beneficiaries.Some charities, particularly those pitching for EU funding (until Brexit) had to work in collaboration with others as the EU preferred to make a large grant to one organisation and leave them to manage smaller chunks locally with others. Smaller charities have often had to swallow their pride in order to access such funds.

It should be part of the strategic thinking of any charity to consider whether existing or potentially new service lines can be done more efficiently by working with others, even if these others are considered "competitors".Do not ignore the possibility of working together and recognise that with the ever increasing scramble for funding, funders like the thought of their grants being maximised by showing that you can get more out of them by working with others.

It is also worth while considering in these times of difficulty whether some of the service lines you are struggling to deliver could be done more efficiently or effectively by others leaving you to deliver on your core services with better impact.It is not an admission of failure to consider this, rather a statement of strength that you can work well with other organisation to deliver your vision, objectives and values.