Governments are looking for ways to cut costs and provide more efficient service. Increasingly, the government has looked to partnering with the not-for-profit sector to achieve these goals. This type of partnership has several benefits: not-for-profit organizations can focus more on the service delivery end of things in areas such as health care and child care, which frees up the government to get on with business in other areas.
Furthermore, not-for-profit organizations tend to be effective innovators. They don’t have excessive amounts of money to work with, so they must come up with solutions to problems with limited resources. And their organizations are fundamentally dedicated to helping others, so it is expected that they would provide the highest possible quality of service to the public.
Of course, this type of relationship is a partnership, and there must be some level of give and take between the two. The government should provide non-profits with the resources they need to get the job done. In return, non-profits must demonstrate that their involvement is benefiting government in some capacity. Benchmarks of some sort must be put in place to ensure that everyone is being held accountable for their work, but involved parties must take care not to get too caught up in minutiae lest they lose sight of what they set out to do.
What are your thoughts on the relationship between the government and the non-profit sector? Do you think such a partnership is a good idea? Let us know in the comments.
