How We Partner

Building strong partnerships is at the core of what Pact does. We believe that the complexity of the problems the world faces today demand responses that are equally complex and multi-dimensional if we are to create long-term sustainable social change. To achieve this we seek to forge partnerships with a wide variety of organizations and institutions that bring different skills and interests to the mix. At the heart of all our successful partnerships is mutual respect and a shared vision.

Donor partnerships
Pact has a long history of partnering with the donor community, from bilateral agencies such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), to multilateral organizations such as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the World Bank. At the same time private foundations are increasing their presence in international development. Long-established foundations, such as Ford, Packard and MacArthur, have demonstrated a strong commitment to research and development of capacity building tools and to actively strengthening local organizations. For all of our donor partnerships, Pact provides on-the-ground knowledge of local organizations and communities and over 36 years of experience designing and implementing replicable programs with long-term impact.

Public-private partnerships
There is a growing recognition in the private sector of the benefits of corporations participating more actively in the social and economic development of the communities in which they work. As corporations increase their support for social development programs, Pact seeks to engage with the private sector to implement strategic, results-based initiatives. We have developed partnerships with several corporations including the Cabot Corporation, Citigroup, Chevron, Levi Strauss, Anvil Mining, and Microsoft, just to name a few. Our approach to building public-private partnerships has evolved over the last decade as our experience has grown. Consequently, the process through which we independently and jointly identify risks, opportunities, roles, responsibilities, and goals is crucial to building the foundation for a successful partnership. (Read more about our engagement with corporations.)

Peer partnerships
Pact is committed to developing high-impact, mutually beneficial partnerships with other organizations from around the world. We recognize that through combining our respective strengths with peer organizations we more consistently are able to design compelling projects and generate greater programmatic impact. Through our peer partnerships we strive to leverage:

• synergies that derive from complementary skills, knowledge and experience
• strengths from our local partners' relationships and networks
• opportunities to develop more culturally and politically sensitive development approaches
• local human resource talent and leadership
• more cost-effective delivery closer to the end users, and
• inter-organizational knowledge sharing and learning

In evidence of our commitment to peer partnerships, Pact is a founding member and secretariat of the Impact Alliance, a globally networked services, marketplace, and multi-stakeholder partnership that pools the talent of members from the civil, public, and private sectors in countries around the world to scale-up their social impact. (Read more about our peer partnerships through the Impact Alliance.)

Local partnerships
Pact's core competency is organizational and institutional capacity building. Our philosophy is to work with and through local nongovernmental organizations, faith-based organizations and community-based organizations as well as local public institutions. Pact's reputation has been built upon its success at transferring programmatic skills and organizational development strategies to its local partners. In addition to receiving formal capacity building training and monitoring and evaluation assistance, we provide on-the-job training in financial and human resources management and program design to our local partners. Pact expertise in strengthening local capacity is reflected by the demonstrated ability of Pact partners to implement programming after Pact's contract with the donor and role on the project has ended. Our greatest achievement in transfer of skills is the fact that five of Pact's offices have been localized: Bangladesh (Prip Trust), Peru (Pact Peru), Nepal (Samjhaouta), China (CBAC) and Kenya (Pact Kenya).