Resource Center
Peer Learning Sessions
Peer Learning Sessions are 90-minute teleconference discussions around key issues collaborators face when working on National Forest issues.
Best Practices
The National Forest Foundation (NFF) documents the great ideas and creative approaches used by community-based collaboratives and partnerships. The best practices listed below include a one-page summary, followed by a sample document or agreement that we think is a good template for other groups.
- Formalized Agreement between a Collaborative and the Forest Service
- Multi-Agency MOU Coordinates Landscape Restoration
- Creative Approach to a Field Trip
- Project-specific Collection Agreements
- Participating Agreement - Nonprofit and Agency Share an Employee
- Umbrella Agreement Enables Flexibility in a Partnership
- Governance Documents for Collaboratives
- Employing Field Crews on National Forests
- Creative Forest Service Approach to Travel Planning
- Bankhead Liaison Panel: Timber and Thinning Monitoring Checklist
Tools
Sometimes collaborative group members or nonprofits know what they want to achieve, but are not quite sure what steps to take to get there. The tools listed below are some of the best guides we have found to help organizations clarify roles and responsibilities, determine needs and an appropriate action plan, manage transitions, assess strengths and weaknesses, raise money in rural areas, and work with volunteers.
- Forest Resiliency Indicator Checklist for Collaborative Groups
- Forest Service Handover Memo Can Ease Staff Transitions
- Getting the Work Done - Employee vs. Contractor?
- Developing an Outcome-based Monitoring Plan with Measurable Indicators and Targets
- Organizational Monitoring: Benchmarks for Collaboratives (from the Institute for Conservation Leadership)
- Outcome-Indicator Form
- Adaptive Management Technical Guide
- Important Questions When Forming a Collaborative
- Steps to Becoming a Nonprofit
- Self-Monitoring Tool for Nonprofit Boards
- Ten Basic Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards
- Board and Staff Roles Worksheet
- The Five Life Stages of a Nonprofit Organization
- Basic Fundraising Plan
- Board Fundraising Checklist
- Eight Questions to Craft the Message
- The Collaboration Cloverleaf: Four Stages of Development
- Stages of Collaboration Grid (11" X 17")
- Factors Influencing Successful Collaboration
- Ideas for Recruiting Volunteers
- Enough Formal Banquets! Let's Transform Recognition Events
- Keys to Managing and Working with Volunteers
- Tool: Fiscal Sponsorship--Doing it Right
- Rural Fundraising Success Stories
- Handbooks on Multiparty Monitoring
Collaborative Examples
When a group of diverse interests first comes together, it is often helpful to learn from the models provided by other collaborations. The purpose of the following collaborative examples is to outline the structures used by different collaborative groups, including an assessment of what worked as well as lessons learned.
- Front Range Roundtable
- Montana Forest Restoration Committee
- New Mexico Biomass Evaluation Task Force
- Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition
- Tongass Futures Roundtable
- Upper Joseph Creek Landscape Scale Assessment
Links
- WestCAN Online Collaboration Library
- Forest Service - National Partnership Office
- Forest Service's Ecosystem Management Coordination Collaboration Web Page
- National Council of Nonprofits
- Partnership Resource Center
- Partnership Guide
- Red Lodge Clearinghouse
- U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution
Not finding what you need here? Email Karen DiBari or call 406-542-2805 ex. 13 or 1-866-773-4633 ex.13 for information and referral.
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