The idea of partnerships comes at a time when women's organizations are suffering from shrinking government support and minimal support from the private sector. At the same time, demands for services are increasing. Women's organizations are therefore being pressured to respond to a growing need for services, to compete with other non-profit organizations, and to respond to the increasingly demanding funding requirements of various institutions.
In the best of situations, partnerships could increase women's organizations' financial resources. Additional resources could allow them to gain stability, autonomy, recognition, and give them access to new audiences. However, at the present time, it seems women's organizations are in the worst of situations. In order to find partners to support violence against women prevention projects, women's organizations are often forced to compromise their vision and their mission. In addition to public funding cuts, the entire voluntary sector's need for financial resources is pressuring women's organizations to compete with other non-profit organizations. The power of institutions to choose which non-profit organizations and which social issues they want to support becomes greater. As a result, women's organizations risk losing control of their programs. They also risk being forced to sell their connections to their clients, and, as one woman explains: "to compromise their politics by being involved in corporate exploitation."
However, in order for partnerships between institutions and women's organizations working for the prevention of violence against women to be effective: (1) institutions have to enable women's organizations to stay free-standing and to do what they know is best for women; and (2) women's organizations need to carefully evaluate their partnerships so that their goals and objectives will be respected by institutions. Nevertheless, until institutions are interested in women's organizations' work, and unless they respond to women's organizations' needs rather than the other way around, women's organizations' will not have the political space they need to effectively prevent violence against women.
This research has highlighted the complex problems that reduced funding from government and the seeking of institutional partnerships pose for women's organizations. This research has revealed that, although a few institutions (2.3% representing 6 out of 266) are interested in supporting violence against women prevention projects in feminist organizations, the majority (97.7% representing 260 out of 266) do not appear to be interested in supporting these issues.
Thus, how should women's organizations manage when they are forced, by decreasing public funding, growing needs for services, limited resources, and competition with other non-profit organizations, to find institutions who will answer their needs? How should women's organizations manage the control over their work when faced simultaneously with the competition generated by the increased demands for funding from the non-profit sector and with increased institutional funding requirements? Where will women's organizations find support in a societal context where less than 4% of donations from foundations and corporate philanthropy are specifically oriented toward women's issues, and where the interest in developing future partnerships in support of violence against women prevention programs and projects averages 2.3% of all institutions of this sample? Finally, how will women's organizations be able to prevent violence against women when such a process must begin and end from a recognition that there needs to be profound changes in society starting with a challenge of the power and authority of institutions?
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