ABSTRACT
The interorganizational relations of a voluntary nonprofit organization are the medium through which it obtains from the environment the various resources it needs for its various tasks. These resources are both tangible and intangible, and involve other organizations, both governmental and voluntary ones. The increase in the forms of collaboration, particularly in England, seems to have been a response to the growing number of voluntary organizations and the complexity of their interrelationships with each other and with government, partly due to the more extensive responsibilities assumed by each in the personal social services. The strategies adopted by the umbrella “organizations of organizations” differ in the degree to which they are integrated into the prevailing policy-making structure—that is, the extent to which they are regularly involved in a consultation process with the government, versus whether they function more as a lobbying or pressure group.
