ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the stages of the partnership process and offers a model with which to understand them. It is based upon work carried out by its authors, both at a conceptual level (Murray 1998) and at an empirical level (Osborne and Murray 1998), about government-non-profit relationships in Canada. It commences by offering a model of the stages of collaboration involved in a partnership. It then uses this model to explore a partnership between four nonprofit organizations in Canada as part of their evolving relationship with the provincial government. In this case, the public-private partnership is the broader context for the non-profit partnership that this case example focuses on. However, the micro-case discussed here provides an excellent example of how an understanding of the stages of partnership is essential to both the analysis and management of public-private partnerships.
