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  • Writer's pictureMichelle Walker

Q24 & Q25: Developing Partnerships with Intellectual Property


My pre-survey reading enlightened me to the myriad ways that intellectual property assets are used to expand market opportunities. Partnering with other brands or companies is one strategy for market expansion. I had worked at nonprofits that sought a variety of partnerships and I wondered how prevalent it would be within this sample.


The 19 survey respondents were asked if the nonprofit’s intellectual property is used to create partnership opportunities with other organizations or agencies.

Is the organization's intellectual property leverage to create partnership opportunities with other organizations or agencies? Yes, no, and I don't know given as answer options.
2014 Survey: Question 24

The nonprofits shared:

  • Seventeen (17): Use their intellectual property to create partnership opportunities with other organizations.

  • Two (2): Do not use their intellectual property to create partnership opportunities.

The seventeen that do use create partnership opportunities with intellectual property were asked a follow-up question about the purpose of those partnerships.

What is the primary purpose of the partnerships leveraged through intellectual property? Please check all that apply. Options given were Reach New Constituents, Advocate, Generate Revenue, Other with a text field for elaboration.
2014 Survey: Question 25

The responses the nonprofits selected were:

  • Sixteen (16): Use partnerships to reach new constituents

  • Six (6): Use partnerships to advocate

  • Twelve (12): Use partnerships to generate revenue

  • Four (4): Selected other and wrote-in that they use partnerships to:

  • scale our mission efficiently and effectively

  • educate/build capacity

  • maintain quality control, consistency among programs, and fidelity to model

  • serve teachers and help districts develop robust induction programs

Except for the quality control response, the write-in responses could be categorized with the answers provided. Not unlike my professional experiences, the responding nonprofits generally do utilize their IP for market expansion through partnerships, and with this sample it is a priority.

 

You can skip to the summary of all of the responses in the Social Entrepreneurs and Intellectual Property Management paper. Or, read through each of the blog posts tagged as Intellectual Property Data V1.0 for a more recent analysis of the data.


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