Five things we learned about public-private partnerships
Thank you John, Rob, Tiffany, and Michael!
Last week, our 2020-2021 MDLF Fellows event focused on public-private partnerships and how they help drive change in Indiana.
We met with CICP Board Member John Thompson, Lilly Endowment Senior Vice President for Collaborative Strategies Rob Smith, Eli Lilly and Company Foundation President Tiffany Benjamin, and Indy Chamber President and CEO Michael Huber. After the presentations, we summarized what we learned. Here are our key takeaways:
“Meet ‘em before you need em” - get to know people and establish trust before you make an ask. Collaboration is key to going after big problems and trust is needed for collaboration.
Investor/private sector focus is changing to focus on things beyond shareholder value. For example, having a meaningful impact in the community is increasingly important.
Long time horizons are often needed to solve systemic problems and philanthropy can provide that longer-term thinking. Philanthropy dollars can form a community’s risk capital or “long-term” capital.
Investment in your community is like maintenance on a building. If you defer maintenance for too long, the ultimate cost may be much higher.
If you see a problem in Indiana, go out there and try to solve it. Chase the ground balls.
Our next event is in March and will focus on the political process.