Organizational Background

Established in December 1990, Community Partners was formed to meet a growing need experienced by civic and social entrepreneurs in Southern California for a structure that would free them from administrative and fiscal oversight burdens while they pursued causes that motivated them. Initial philanthropic investments in Community Partners came from Latham & Watkins, The James Irvine Foundation, and the California Community Foundation. Additional support soon followed from Bank of America Foundation, the Joseph Drown Foundation, The Ahmanson Foundation, PacifiCare Foundation, and the law firm of Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker. Community Partners accepted its first project for sponsorship in May 1992.

The "incubator" has grown steadily since 1992. Today, Community Partners provides a range of services to assist individuals, organizations and institutions in effectively addressing the complex social, economic and policy issues facing the Southern California region. To do this the organization works in three ways. The Incubator for Services provides support to social entrepreneurs with ideas for significant responses to community challenges. Strategic Initiatives provide program management, coordination and technical assistance to local and statewide initiatives. And, we build civic capacity in Southern California by working with residents and community leaders to assist them in bringing together local stakeholders to build a response to community challenges.

From an initial capitalization of about $250,000, enough to launch Community Partners and give us time on the ground, we have grown to over $10 million a year in revenue. There is a currently a staff of 12 employees in the core office and more than 212 project employees at some 180 projects making change throughout Southern California.

Community Partners' mission is to accelerate ideas into action for the public good. The organization's goals are to:

• Promote Readiness
• Support Civic Action
• Open Doors
• Share Stategically
• Reflect Routinely
• Build a Strong Core

Community Partners approaches its work with its partnership projects with the belief that individual skill development is essential to building solid organizations and healthy communities. They understand that an effective technical assistance (TA) model should be based on strong, meaningful and long-term relationships with the individuals, organizations and communities with whom we work. Establishing these relationships is where Community Partners begins their partnership with project and organizational leaders.

Community Partners seeks to build on their relationships to provide partners with the capabilities they need to successfully implement their programs. This approach involves five important components:

• Assessment and creation of learning/technical assistance plans.
• Direct, one-on-one technical assistance and support.
• Group training based on mutually shared capacity-building priorities across projects and organizations.
• Peer-to-peer learning built on formal and informal knowledge sharing and, sometimes, joint action.
• Connecting partners to important resources such as written materials, publications, consultants and other technical assistance organizations.