1. THE AFFORDABLE CREDIT CHALLENGE – BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS

2. Tools to identify and build partnerships
Nesta supports innovation across sectors with toolkits and some of these are aimed at creating successful partnerships. These tools may help Community Lenders and Fintechs to build their nascent partnership step by step before submitting a proposal to the Challenge, and after that. They will also help you to assess what support is needed along the way.
Nesta’s Partnership Toolkit is an elaborate tool that takes prospective partners through checklists and helps them to create a written partnership agreement together.
Nesta’s Building Partnerships Map is a simple overview of the stages partnership development often follows. It will help to establish how much has been achieved already, and also to look ahead together, to how the partnership can be further developed.
The following pages give some more guidance on using these tools.

3. The Partnership Toolkit
Identifying potential partners is one thing, but actually building a successful partnership that achieves its potential is quite another. Good preparation goes a long way however, and Nesta’s Partnership Toolkit (link) helps with that.
This toolkit has been developed assuming that you have already identified potential partners, and perhaps even had some preliminary conversations. It has been designed to help you prepare for getting your partnership off the ground practically, as well as structuring a written partnership agreement. A number of practical tools are included:
Your go/no go checklist
Getting your partnership off to a good start
Formalising how you will work together
Links to further resources

4. The Building Partnerships Map
Building partnerships takes a lot of effort from all those involved. They often take a considerable investment of time to build the high quality working relationships that underpin effective collaboration. The Building Partnerships Map breaks the process into steps, so you can anticipate difficulties and challenges ahead.
The Building Partnerships Map (link) describes a series of phases which a partnership might involve. The map indicates what is needed in each phase to make such partnerships work, offering guidelines rather than rules. Each phase, as outlined on the map, is important and should not be neglected if the partnership is to remain balanced and on course to achieve its goals.
This tool may be useful in early conversations already, to assess together (Community Lenders and Fintechs) a goal for your joint solution and your partnership.

5. The Building Partnerships Map
Quick guide
Identify the stage that shows where you are at.
Identify the stage where you would like to be.
Use the template as a map to build a pathway towards that stage.
The mapped pathway gives an outline of the activities that need to be done in between.
Find the tool and full instructions on diytoolkit.org.