Christin Kundert’s 4 Tips For Building Effective Partnerships

1.  Know “the power of one.”

Since I was familiar with Enrolled Agents, I knew that by contacting the local chapter president I would find out if there was interest among members in conducting community work.  The local chapter president was extremely excited about the opportunity.  It only takes one motivated person to move a project forward.

2.  Highlight the benefits, not just the goals.

Pull on heart strings and inform the group how they will benefit.  Many of the Enrolled Agents were personally interested in the world of foster care, and each training I did resulted in a “What is it like to be a foster parent?” training rather than a tax training.  Since Enrolled Agents are still an unknown group of tax preparers, this pilot project provided an opportunity for them to gain exposure, show support for foster parents, reach out to their community, and get more clients.  While they were interested in the intended outcome of the project, they cared a lot more about what they would get out of this investment of their time.

3.  Create face time.

I visited several local Enrolled Agents chapter meetings to educate them on foster care and taxes and also conducted a statewide training.  This was a helpful way to introduce myself and the topic of foster parents and taxes while delivering information that was beneficial for them.  After these trainings, with the help of the Washington President for Enrolled Agents, we presented the pilot project.  Since Enrolled Agents were now somewhat familiar with the topic and I had already established a relationship with them, they were enthusiastic about becoming involved.

4.  Make participation easy for the partner organization.

I drew up a plan of how the pilot project would work and then asked for Enrolled Agents to volunteer to be part of the program.  I clearly outlined the process so that the Enrolled Agents didn’t feel overwhelmed, but made sure that they had a chance to provide their input as well.  As part of the process, we partnered participating Enrolled Agents with the Washington State Foster Parent Association Regional Liaisons to arrange locations to prepare taxes.  So, once we rolled out the project, the Washington Chapter of Enrolled Agents didn’t have a long list of additional responsibilities.

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