B2C2 Expansion Toolkit

When identifying opportunities in your external scan, look for potential collaborations and partnerships that can support your concept.  While partnership is a legal term to describe a relationship with obligations (and therefore you may wish to avoid using it unless there is a legal review of your intent and purpose) collaborator or collaborations describe when two or more entities choose to connect for the greater benefit of their community. This may evolve into a relationship that requires a legal agreement or it may be that a simple Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) (agreed to and signed by the Boards of the two organizations) is sufficient for the purposes you intend. 

Example: you may collaborate with your local post-secondary institution to recruit students to assist in developing your external landscape review, depending on how much detail you wish to include for your board. 

You may also wish to collaborate with non-traditional partners to identify areas of opportunity, real-estate or land use options to create additional child care. These relationships may initially start as a collaboration, with a MoU, and then evolve to needing a legal agreement if financing and/or long-term commitments are required. 

Collaborations to Consider

Consider who is in the area you are contemplating and who might be open to a collaboration.

• a long-term care home or other employer who is motivated to be an employer of choice to attract and retain employees with on-site child care
• perhaps there are faith-based institutions with an interest in expanding their community profile and land that can be purchased or leased over a long-term, generating revenue for them while supporting the community
• seek out and form relationships with developers in your community, who are planning new neighbourhoods, often years and years in advance