CFF Partnership Scooping Tool
Strategically Building the Right Partnerships
To implement the CFF Toolbox at scale and generate long-term impact for smallholders and community forests, building the right partnerships is essential. The Partnership Scoping Tool supports this by helping FSC and its collaborators identify, evaluate, and prioritise the most suitable partners for the effective application of CFF tools and approaches across diverse geographical areas and themes.
Community, Family and Forests Work Area
The Partnership Scoping Tool is a structured, Excel-based tool designed to guide FSC and the CFF team in selecting and prioritizing potential partners. It helps match specific program needs, such as technical expertise, market access, or local implementation capacity, with the strengths and capabilities of partner organizations.
Tool Overview
The Partnership Scoping Tool is a structured, Excel-based tool designed to guide FSC and the CFF team in selecting and prioritizing potential partners. It helps match specific program needs, such as technical expertise, market access, or local implementation capacity, with the strengths and capabilities of partner organizations.
The tool supports partnership-building through two main steps:
1. Information Gathering
Using a guided questionnaire, the tool collects detailed information about potential partners, including their motivation, organizational profile, capacity, scope, and special expertise. This information is typically gathered by an FSC staff member or collaborator who is familiar with the partner candidate.
2. Evaluation and Prioritization
The second step evaluates potential partners against nine pre-defined criteria. Answers are color-coded:
The evaluation helps ensure that efforts and resources are invested in partners that are best positioned to support and scale FSC’s mission among SLIMF and community forest managers.
Partner prioritization is not a one-time task. The tool encourages regular review of partner performance and relevance, supporting long-term collaboration, mutual learning, and alignment with evolving goals.
If you’d like access to the tool or have questions about its application, please contact the FSC CFF team.