Challenges and strategies of building and sustaining inter-organizational partnerships in sport for development and peace

•Examined challenges and strategies in sport for development and peace partnerships.•Key challenges included competition for resources, power relations, mission drift.•Key strategies included building relationships, treating partnership as business.•Several unique challenges and strategies to the SDP field were identified.•Theoretical extensions to sport for development and peace partnerships illuminated.While sport management scholars have explored inter-organizational partnerships and their associated challenges, they have devoted less attention to inter-organizational partnership development and sustainability in sport for development and peace (SDP), particularly across a wide range of organizations with varied missions and foci. Hence, the purpose of this qualitative study was to examine challenges faced by SDP organizations when forming and sustaining inter-organizational partnerships across contexts and partnership types, and to uncover strategies they have employed to overcome these challenges. Common challenges encountered across 29 SDP organizations included competition for resources, skepticism of sport as a development tool, unequal power relations, misaligned goals and mission drift, and implementation issues. Strategies included focusing on building relationships and networks, demonstrating benefits to partner, starting small then diversifying, keeping focused on mission and goals, involving partner, and treating the partnership as a business relationship. Theoretical extensions and practical implications are discussed, along with directions for future research.