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Infographic from the Los Angeles Times: In 2011, a core group of five foundations set out to use California’s prison crowding crisis as a springboard for broad changes in criminal justice policy. They used partnerships and grants of at least $14 million to build a statewide network that now plays a key role in the Proposition 47 ballot drive to reduce criminal penalties for drug use and petty theft. Funding for most of that advocacy work – over and above a $9-million political campaign – did not have to be disclosed on campaign contribution reports.

There are more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations in the United States with an estimated 20 million board members at the helm. The sheer number of people who devote their lives, their money, and their time to an important mission is truly inspiring.

There is an increasing recognition among the sectors – government, philanthropy, and business– that they may achieve greater impact by working together to solve problems of shared interest. While public private partnerships are not new, they have tended to be episodic, time-limited and ad hoc. As a consequence, the costs and risks of mounting such efforts can discourage their development. In recent years, there have been a number of efforts to overcome such barriers through the creation of an  nfrastructure for partnerships that we refer to as offices of strategic partnerships.

Three months after it painted Los Angeles as a metropolis stumbling into decline, the Los Angeles 2020 Commission offered 13 recommendations Wednesday that it said would “put the city on a path to fiscal stability and renew job creation.” The group of prominent business, labor and civic leaders called on elected officials to enact a wide-ranging series of policy initiatives—increasing the minimum wage, combining giant twin harbors into a single port, altering oversight of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and bolstering efforts to promote tourism.