Opportunities and Best Practices for Tribal Partnerships
Click to read Best Practices for Tribal Partnerships
Published December 2025
This brief by the Urban Institute examines experiences among seven core coalition partners involved in the Tulsa Regional Advanced Mobility cluster, which received funding from the US Economic Development Administration. Through interviews with tribal and nontribal partners, we discuss the challenges and successes of a regional coalition partnership, including applying for project funding, forming a partnership, and implementing a partnership project. We conclude with lessons for tribal and Indigenous partners and nontribal partners.
Why This Matters
Tribal grantees’ experiences with regional coalition partnerships can inform future efforts to secure funding and implement projects in partnership with others. Partnerships can enable individual entities to access funding and undertake projects that would otherwise be inaccessible or unachievable. They also can fill gaps in partners’ knowledge and experience and support capability and capacity building, as partners can learn from each other and engage in efforts they might not take on alone.
Key Takeaways
Four challenges and successes related to partnership formation and implementation emerged:
Establishing an operational structure takes time and a lot of communication. A clear structure is important for ensuring partners work together efficiently with minimal redundancy of effort.
Keeping project implementation on track within a grant’s time frame can be difficult when not all partners are able to move quickly and flexibly. When bureaucratic hurdles threaten to slow advancement, a partnership can consider options for shifting tasks to another member or can generate ideas for other paths forward.
Developing tribal capacity is possible through partnerships. Tribes can increase their sector knowledge and grant-management skills by working with partners, which can improve their ability to pursue funding for future projects.
Balancing a tribe’s for-profit efforts with its service provision so that business efforts support tribal-advancement goals requires intention, ongoing communication between the project team and tribal leadership, and support from tribal government.
Lessons for tribal partners include the following:
Tribes should think broadly about what they can bring to partnerships. Contributions might include tangible assets, such as land access, or less tangible ones, such as advantages associated with sovereign nation status.
Identify the benefits sought from the partnership related to economic development and other tribal goals. These might include direct economic benefits, training and educational opportunities, or expansion of tribal capabilities related to fundraising and project implementation and management.
Working with a good economic developer can help clarify the tribe’s roles and responsibilities as a partner within the context of other tribal needs, opportunities, and priorities. If the tribe does not have an economic development department, it might consider contracting out for this expertise.
Identify the skills, knowledge, and experience needed for project implementation, and look as broadly as possible to identify the best candidates for a strong team. For some roles, this might mean engaging external technical or management experts and consulting with other tribes that have developed partnerships, especially in related fields. National and regional tribal conferences are good places to engage other tribes.
Establish regular meetings with tribal government leaders to sustain government support for the project throughout implementation and to maintain the alignment of project implementation and benefits with tribal values and priorities. Establish a practice of regular communication with partners as well. This can strengthen relationships and spark new ideas and solutions to challenges that arise.
Lessons for nontribal partners include the following:
Nontribal partners should be aware of the diversity among tribal nations when considering what tribes can bring to a partnership. The specific contributions to a partnership will vary across tribal nations.
Relationships and trust are built and maintained over time. Ideally, begin building relationships before establishing a formal partnership.
A tribe’s decision to enter into a partnership is theirs alone and should be respected. Tribes’ economic development decisions consider a tribe’s histories, cultural values, and current circumstances, which vary across tribal nations.
Influential tribal members can be important for a project’s success. Nontribal partners need to know who within a tribe, in addition to the formal partners, will provide ongoing support for the project and the partnership, and should invest in relationships with them.
How We Did It
To learn about partnering experiences and draw lessons for tribes and tribal entities, we interviewed partners involved in the Tulsa Regional Advanced Mobility cluster, including staff from Osage LLC. We also drew on Tulsa Regional Advanced Mobility materials and reports available online.