Governing Government-Nonprofit Partnerships: Linking Governance Mechanisms to Collaboration Stages

How are government-nonprofit partnerships governed when nonprofits play significant roles in financing and creating public services? This article examines the linkage between governance mechanisms and various collaboration stages of government-nonprofit partnerships. Using a multiple case design of 10 government-nonprofit partnerships for public parks in major cities of the Ohio River Basin Region, four major mechanisms are identified: representing government on the nonprofit board, reaching a formal agreement, building relationships, and building leadership capacity. Several related propositions are presented to facilitate future theory testing.