What to Consider in Creating a Strategic Alliance

This 2006 practice note by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) provides a guide for not-for-profit organizations on creating and managing strategic alliances. It distinguishes alliances from other collaborative models like coalitions or partnerships, emphasizing the need for integrated management systems, shared value appropriation, and corporate ownership to achieve greater capacity, influence, and financing.

• The document distinguishes a strategic alliance from other trans-organizational systems—such as coalitions, formal knowledge networks, and partnerships—based on the level of integrated management systems and the degree of corporate ownership and joint public communication. Unlike simple collaborations, an alliance requires "linked and common processes" and "real value appropriation (sharing of finances, time and channels of influence)" among the participating institutions.
• There are three primary drivers for an institution to seek a strategic alliance: the desire to increase capacity by mobilizing intellectual skills more effectively as a team, the need for a "critical mass" to achieve greater influence through a common voice, and the pursuit of new financing models where donors might prefer pooling resources for an alliance rather than supporting institutes individually.
• A comprehensive alliance requires management across six key areas: corporate management (CEO vested interest and shared risks), financial management (shared investment reporting), project management (increased scale and knowledge exchange), communications management (common language and protocols), staff management (incentives to prioritize alliance work), and results management (common ownership of goals and impact monitoring).
• To avoid the failure of simply working separately on common interests, institutions should implement incremental shared functions. These include joint fundraising, a jointly-managed common fund, shared communications products, collaborative work tools, and a unified stand on policy recommendations.
• The start-up phase of an alliance involves five critical tasks: analyzing the history of inter-institutional relationships, reviewing organizational mandates and cultures, defining roles across functional boundaries (researchers, financial, and communications staff), addressing operational challenges, and implementing a monitoring framework.
• Operational challenges in alliances include the clash between institutional and collaboration priorities, the need to manage relationships with other external networks, and the often-overlooked cost of funding the management of the relationship itself. Financial management options range from each institute managing its own funds to using a common trust fund with trustees from each member.
• Performance monitoring for a pilot alliance should focus on two metrics: effectiveness, measured by whether the alliance leads to new knowledge and greater impact via an outcome map with progress markers, and efficiency, measured by how management issues are addressed using a shared alliance scorecard.

APA

Creech, H. (2006). What to Consider in Creating a Strategic Alliance. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/networks_strategic_alliance.pdf

Chicago

Creech, Heather. What to Consider in Creating a Strategic Alliance. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2006. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/networks_strategic_alliance.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Creech |first1=Heather |title=What to Consider in Creating a Strategic Alliance |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=2006 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/networks_strategic_alliance.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{creech2006what, author = {Creech, Heather}, title = {{What to Consider in Creating a Strategic Alliance}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2006}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/networks_strategic_alliance.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }