Melissa Stone, a professor of nonprofit management at the University of Minnesota, gave a lecture Tuesday about how nonprofit organizations can effectively collaborate for a common good.

Stone’s lecture, “Governing Partnerships: Collective Decision-Making Under Complex, Dynamic Conditions” was given as part of the Monroe-Paine Distinguished Lecture Series. The former MU President Frederick Middlebush established the Monroe-Paine lectures in the Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs as a gift to honor his wife’s parents.

“We invite prominent speakers and policy makers who would give an interesting lecture and stir up a lot discussion,” Truman School of Public Affairs director Barton Wechsler said.

The lecture set out to answer how partnerships between communities, citizens and nonprofit organizations are governed and what kind of governance structure was the most effective at producing results.

“Governance has emerged as a major 21st century issue,” Stone said. “The governance of both for profit and nonprofit organizations has really come under fire. There is hardly two weeks that go by in the Twin Cities where there isn’t some front-page scandal happening within a nonprofit.”

Stone first defined what exactly a collaboration or partnership is.

“Collaboration involves linking or sharing information, activities, resources and power to achieve jointly what could not be achieved separately,” Stone said.

Stone then presented two case studies on Minnesota collaborations and compared their successes and shortfalls.

The first case study, the Employment Connection Partnership, was a stewardship created the mid-1990s that was granted one million dollars to connect employees with employers. The second case study, the Urban Partnership Agreement, was granted approximately $180 million to fix urban traffic congestion in Minnesota.

“The ECP resource hubs were loosely formed with no template,” Stone said. “The UPA was very centralized and utilized existing technology.”

The UPA finished its policy implementation on time and within budget and was claimed to be the model of nonprofit governance for the future.

Stone explained why the UPA’s structure of a nonprofit organization, and what similar organizations can do and avoid to be just as effective.

“These loosey-goosey stewardship teams are great, but they don’t look familiar to the people who have the authority to give money, give you support and legitimacy,” Stone said. “The most important thing is to build trust. Get some successes out early and use multiple layers of governance structures.”

The most effective nonprofit governable structure involved a collaborating hierarchy, as this kind of structure frames interactions. Efficient governable processes incorporate building collective leadership and trust, because processes create rules of engagement.

Stone concluded the lecture by discussing the state of nonprofit collaborations themselves.

“Collaborations are weaker forms of governance than bureaucracy,” Stone said. “I think they’re fragile, but I think they’re here to stay.”

Integrated Business Perspective Program Coordinator Michael Christy attended the lecture because he teaches similar classes in the Trulaske College of Business.

“I like to attend lots of interesting lectures to take advantage of what the university has to offer,” Christy said.