The distinct advantages of nonprofit organizations relate to their established community relationships and networks, acquired knowledge about and experience in working with community stakeholders, and cumulative records of delivering relevant goods and services to targeted groups. In an education collaborative, this kind of local familiarity at a micro level could provide a strong foundation for understanding how to translate school and student needs into workable education strategies that are targeted locally. The nonprofit sector’s capacity to develop customized products and solutions for particular segments of a market has allowed it to fill economic and social gaps that are often the result of inadequacies in the private and public sectors. Specifically, the work of foundations, social service providers, and community development financial enterprises at local, state, and national levels continues to prove that the role of nonprofits in the development and sustainability of neighborhoods and communities is invaluable.

Nonprofits can serve as local barometers for organizational partners hoping to offer transformative models for public schooling. Knowing which local constituencies carry significant influence can certainly be vital to achieving community trust and acceptance of school change. By partnering with trusted and tested local nonprofits, professionals and firms representing other sectors not only acquire relevant knowledge and access that may not have been available otherwise, but they also gain reputable community institutions as advocates and intermediaries for their school plans and propositions. Community stakeholders are more willing to adopt the proposals of an outside party on the recommendation of a nonprofit that has a record for working with and contributing to their community. Because nonprofits are traditionally committed to responding to the needs of markets and groups that are neglected or underserved by conventional markets, they represent crucial partners for education initiatives in locales that overlap with their areas of service and programmatic efforts.