Collaboration involves great autonomy and no permanent organizational commitments or combined services. Examples include sharing information and coordinating efforts. This type of relationship offers greater autonomy, with no permanent organizational commitment.
A strategic alliance involves shared or transferred decision-making power, such as joint programming of an event or consolidation of one or more administrative functions, with both partners still operating independently. The benefit in this relationship is that decision-making power is shared or transferred.
Integration changes organizational structure and control mechanisms, as with joint ventures (two or more organizations create a new structure to advance a program-related function) and mergers (previously separate organizations combine program/administrative/governance functions).
Funding alliances are established to provide or share funds. This requires Main Street to enter into a recipient–donor relationship or share a larger grant/donation. Issues of fiscal and administrative management can be a great hindrance, so often a separate body can be created to manage the funds and allocate them to each partner organization as determined in the original agreement.
Cost-sharing occurs when each organization provides different resources, such as facilities, staff, or equipment. Both partners share the benefits; both share the costs.
A grant match is when one organization provides a grant and the recipient provides a match in services, cash, maintenance, supplies, or volunteers.