Partnerships & Institutional Support

Sponsorship of an NHD Affiliate program brings many benefits to the institution. This section introduces some of the benefits for all types of institutions and benefits specific to historical societies, museums, and humanities councils and to educational institutions like colleges/universities and schools. It is by no means an exhaustive list. What other benefits do you identify?

How engaged are your institutional leaders in your Affiliate program? Do they come to your contest? Do they consider your program a fundraising priority? To what extent are they articulating the program's value and advocating for it? How can you help them support the program more? 

Institutions Support NHD in All Shapes and Sizes

Depending on a variety of factors (e.g., resources, staffing, level of commitment), sponsoring organizations of NHD Affiliate programs vary in the way in which they structure their support. 

• Some, such as the Ohio History Connection, Tennessee Historical Society, Minnesota Historical Society, and Hawai'i Endowment for the Humanities, have made their NHD programs the core of their education outreach efforts. In such institutions, the Affiliate coordinator is a full-time (or nearly so) staff position, and the institution offers teacher and student workshops, staff visits to classrooms, and development of instructional materials (e.g., state and local topic ideas and bibliographies). Focusing on their Affiliate program in this way results in greater participation and positions the organizations as leaders in history education in tangible ways, such as invitations to help state education departments develop history standards and curriculum.

Ideal Elements of Institutional Support

Recognizing and respecting that all programs have different histories and cultures and are not the same, there are characteristics of an ideal Affiliate program. These represent best practices and are a way to achieve the benefits listed above for the institution and, ultimately, for students.

To optimize the benefits of sponsoring NHD, the institution should strive to:

• Hire a full-time NHD coordinator who will develop and execute the annual contest and strengthen the program throughout the year with outreach to teachers and students.

• Provide the coordinator full access to institutional support and resources (e.g., development expertise, administrative services, helping at the contest).

• Provide technical support and equipment.

• Connect with other Affiliate programs and the national office to stay abreast of the status and achievements of other Affiliates and adopt best practices or avoid pitfalls accordingly.

• Maintain historical and current records on participation. Programmatic history, regional growth/contraction, etc.

• Participate fully in NHD's efforts to collect, aggregate, and learn from data from all Affiliate programs.

• Articulate, from board to all staff, the mission of NHD, the benefits for students, and program basics.

• Believe, at all levels, that delivering a program of the highest quality for the benefit of students is why we all do NHD.

• Consider the Affiliate program as a crucial player in an international federation that improves the teaching and learning of history and fosters civic engagement. 

Developing and Maintaining Institutional Involvement and Support

How does your program get there? Being an Affiliate coordinator indicates that you are enjoying some modicum of support from your sponsoring institution. Could this support be strengthened? 

Communicating the Value of NHD and Your Contribution

Need something? Whether you need more staff, more volunteers, a stronger fundraising commitment, greater office support, or all of the above, you’ll be far more likely to receive these if you are regularly articulating the value of the program to your institution and how NHD aligns with its mission and strategic plan. 

Chances are good that you’ll find several points of alliance between NHD’s benefits and your institution’s purpose and goals. Develop your talking points on these shared values and use them strategically in planning for your program. Find the language that connects and use it consistently. This is your value proposition. If you are not in a position to interact with your institution's executive, then be sure that your message gets through the channels.

• View the Program Evaluation page to see samples of reports you could create and share with stakeholders

Partnership Coalition Building 101

If you have an engaged advisory board and are working hard at communicating your value message throughout your institution, you are well on your way to building a coalition of key people who believe in your cause. Others to bring into your coterie include trustees of your institution, state/territorial governmental leaders, education leaders, staff within the history and education communities, and VIPs. You may not be in a position to connect with all of these folks, but your supervisor or other colleagues may be. 

This coalition takes time to build, requires time to nurture, and will pay off when you need it. Think of the coalition as your stakeholders or champions who will fight for your program when danger threatens. Are budget cuts looming? Are departments being restructured? Are teachers or school administrators telling you they no longer have time for NHD?  These are all potential threats that your coalition can help you to battle. They'll be there for you if you have kept them engaged and informed all along. 

Program Growth through Partnerships

A successful NHD Affiliate program relies upon the strengths of partnerships. Make a list of the institutions in your state/territory/country that are engaged in history and/or education in some way. Look at their mission statements. How might each of them support your NHD program? What's in it for them? Consider the benefits provided above to develop your pitch to these organizations. 

• See the Regional Management section for ways to develop strategically-located partners into regional program sponsors.

Constant Vigilance

The worst thing you can do with your coalition is ignore it. Similarly, the worst thing you can do with your value message is to stop repeating it. Memories are short, and alliances are shorter. Continually beat the drum about all the good work you are doing and why NHD is a high-quality program. Put it on your calendar to reach out regularly to your coalition with short updates. Provide this update to your supervisor and request that it be shared with the board of trustees and/or post it to your website. Consider highlighting various aspects of your program, quantitatively as well as qualitatively, such as

• Summaries of your post-contest evaluations that you've done with teachers, students, and/or judges. 

• Spotlight a teacher who is doing great work with NHD. 

• Include events such as workshops, school visits, library research days, new schools you've successfully recruited, interesting local/state/territorial topics students are pursuing, etc.

Additional Resources

• Information on Advisory Committees