By Amy Goldman, GHR Foundation CEO & Chair

Public-private partnerships are not new, but governments are increasingly collaborating with small and mid-sized philanthropies like GHR Foundation to incubate new approaches that may be too risky to pursue without a partner. As an entrepreneurial grant maker, we see partnerships as a critical component of achieving our strategic objectives in health, education and global development.  

What do we mean when we talk about public-private partnerships?  They are a collaborative working relationship between government, the private sector and/or philanthropy.  It is in the intersection between diverse organizations that we see shared value. GHR Foundation, like many philanthropies, is focused on addressing systemic challenges. These tough issues require others—government, other donors and the private sector—to have a tangible investment in order to ensure lasting change. 

We know government agencies are looking to partner with others to achieve impact. For example, a recent briefing from the Brookings Institute noted the amount of USAID resources put toward public-private partnerships has gone from 8 percent to 46 percent under the leadership of outgoing Administrator Rajiv Shah.

Our Alzheimer’s work is a key example of how foundations can scale investment through partnership. Currently our $17 million in grant commitments is helping to fund more than $450 million in ground-breaking prevention research.  If successful, this research has the potential to compound GHR’s impact and turn the tide on Alzheimer’s – a goal that is brought much closer when industry, government, academia and philanthropy partner to accelerate results.

There’s an African proverb that says, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. This explains our primary motivation for engaging in public-private partnerships.  Benefits for leveraging partnership in our grant making include:

• Impact. Achieving something that would be impossible independently.
  
• Scale. Expanding models that are successful for larger impact.
  
• Sustainability & local ownership. Building local stakeholders into the process to generate genuine partnership which leads to long-term viability.
  
• Systems change. Transforming the context within which we are working, incorporating diverse actors, to achieve lasting solutions.
  
• Efficiency & efficacy. Improving coordination among distinct players for faster and more lasting results.
  
• Credibility. Ensuring a seat at the table and building a meaningful reputation on critical issues.
  

Public-private partnerships require foundations work to cultivate trust and invest staff time to achieve mutual success. However, tangible and intangible investments in partnerships pay considerable dividends over the long term.

GHR Foundation's Inter-Religious Action funding works to improve development outcomes, build lasting community connections and advance peace by mobilizing religious leaders and communities to address common challenges. Religions for Peace (RfP), an organization which advances common action among the world’s religious communities for peace, recently co-organized a Buddhist-Christian dialogue with the Vatican at the site of Buddha’s enlightenment in India.

GHR funds RfP’s Center of Excellence for Multi-Religious Conflict Transformation and their program Protecting Vulnerable Children through Inter-religious Cooperation in Myanmar.

Under the theme “Buddhist and Christians Together Promoting Fraternity” more than 60 Catholic leaders, Vatican officials and Buddhist convened to discern shared values, identify common challenges and develop joint responses to contemporary challenges both communities are committed to address.

Archbishop Felix Machado, Chairman for the Commission for Interreligious Dialogue in India and for the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference, stated, "dialogue of collaboration among Buddhists and Christians could help the plight of many children today throughout the world, including orphans and those deprived of parental love and affection, the bonded labors, those forced to participate in brutal wars, those allured to participate in trafficking of children for sexual exploitation, those used as drug peddlers, those who become victims of arms dealers.”

Venerable Prof. Medawachchiye Dhammajothi, Secretary General of the Sri Lanka Council of Religions for Peace, presented the work of RfP Sri Lanka's multi-religious pre-school for children of all religions and ethnicities in Vavunia, the place severely affected by the country’s civil war.

"Buddhist and Christian leaders should work with leaders of other faiths in responding to inter-communal tensions and violence and make joint public appearances to promote interreligious harmony," Venerable Dhammajothi said.

The participants issued the final statement and action plan and committed to develop concrete measures of cultivating "fraternity" between two major religious traditions and beyond in their respective communities, countries and globally.

If you’re interested in partnering with GHR to support inter-religious collaboration, contact us.