On Friday I attended the second annual Beyond Cause Marketing in Boston. Produced by Scott Henderson and the good folks at CauseShift and hosted by Microsoft’s NERD Center, it was a jam-packed opportunity to meet and mix with 60 of the best practitioners in a wide variety of fields including PR, communications, marketing, nonprofits, corporations, government and media. You can see more of the live action, tweets and updates by looking up #BeyondCM.

The theme of the day is the essence of what Beyond Cause Marketing is all about. What happens when you take money off the table? What happens when you go beyond just marketing and really talk about what it takes to move the needle forward. I kept remembering a quote from former President Clinton that says we are meant to leave the next generation with a new set of problems to solve, not leave them our same issues and problems (paraphrased).

It started with a conversation gauntlet led by Brian Reich (author of Shift and Reset: Strategies for Addressing Serious Issues in a Connected Society). This was one of the best innovations in conference-land I’ve seen in a long time. Experts in the field sat in a hot-seat and talked about what they see and experience in the field. The gauntlet included two of my all-time favorites, Robbie Vitrano of Naked Pizza and Becca Colbaugh of JESS3.

I was asked to attend to lead a breakout session where we gathered a small group of attendees to talk about one issue ranging from hackathons to gaming for good and digital storytelling. Other session leads included Joe Waters – who just released Cause Marketing For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback))- if you haven’t read it you should!

I led a session on public and private partnerships. We outlined 11 keys tips for building a social contract. Think of these as a check-list that you use when looking to build a partnership of any kind. They all don’t have to be used – but the more of them you can incorporate, the better and stronger the partnership.

1. Buy-in from all partners. This can include government, corporate and nonprofit.

2. Identify responsibilities and goals. Who is doing what and how much clarity can you get on this before you start?

3. Do your research. All sides have a responsibility to know who they are doing business with. Do background checks, be prudent in who you partner with.

4. Create a contract of expectations. This is different from a scope of work or a contract. This is something all parties create that outlines what they expect from the partnership and what both sides are going to do to get there.

5. Leverage Resources. Leave nothing on the table.

6. Avoid silos. Collective impact will, by definition, have the most impact. Don’t think you can operate alone – you can’t.

7. Be tactical on timing. Double the money and double the time it’s going to take to build/launch.

8. Hook ‘em. What is the partnership going to do to hook the audience? Don’t forget the PR when you’re building a program. People need to know what you’re doing to support it and tell others.

9. Define measurable goals. The goals can change, but outline them when you start. Don’t be afraid to be bold. Really push for what you want this partnership to accomplish.

10. Reassess the impact of the program. If you’re going to take a partnership to year 2 or year 3, you have to take your measurable goals and align them with the objectives and really look at what you’re looking to do in future years. Critical for all sides to do this – first separately and then together as a team.

11. Take an agile approach. Launch and then reconfigure. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect at launch – often it can’t be – because you have to see the partnership in practice to really know what is going on and that you’re hitting all of your targets, goals and objectives.

This isn’t all of it – but it’s a great start and a lot to chew on. Huge thank you to Scott and his team for providing the atmosphere to engage in this conversation with my peers and stretch my way of thinking about programs from the agency, brand and nonprofit side.

What do you look for when building partnerships?