Improving National Park Service partnerships: A gap analysis of external partners

Partnerships between public agencies and nonprofit organizations, corporations, and private businesses are a growing trend, and consequently the nature of these partnerships has become more complex. With this expansive role for partnerships comes the need for the National Park Service and its partners to be knowledgeable of NPS policies and to possess a variety of management skills if they and stakeholders are to work together optimally. In 2005 the National Park Service and Clemson University entered into a cooperative agreement to determine partnership training and development priorities for NPS employees (phase I) and NPS partners (phase II). Both phases used online surveys to obtain baseline data regarding knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as partnership attitudes, that identified existing and future training needs of employees and partners associated with NPS partnership work. This article reports on the second phase of the partnership study, administered in spring 2010 to NPS partners, including but not limited to friends groups (alliances, associates, clubs, conservancies, foundations, societies, and trusts) and cooperating associations across the United States.