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Building international partnerships for Erasmus+ projects is one of the most rewarding — and most frustrating — parts of youth work. Done well, it creates relationships that last years and projects that genuinely change participants' lives. Done poorly, it wastes months of email exchanges and results in a project that falls apart before submission.
Start with Values, Not Geography
The most common mistake is treating partnership-building as a logistical exercise. You need a partner from Germany (for the funding rules). You need a partner who can host. You need a partner who can handle the financial reporting. All of this is true — but if you start here, you end up with organisations who are technically compatible and thematically incompatible.
Start with: what is this project actually about? What values and approaches does it require? Who is working on these questions in other countries with similar energy and similar integrity? Then worry about the geography.
Where to Actually Find Partners
The SALTO Tool for Partnership (TCA) is the most comprehensive database, but it is not where the best partnerships come from. The best partnerships come from relationships built at training courses, at European youth events, at conferences — in person, over time.
The best partner is not the organisation that responds fastest to your email. It is the organisation you already know, whose work you respect, whose team you trust to show up even when things go wrong.
Practical Steps
- Attend SALTO-YOUTH training courses and European youth events to meet potential partners before you need them
- Be honest in your initial contact about where you are in the process — experienced organisations appreciate directness
- Have a video call before committing — written communication conceals personality and working culture
- Ask for references from previous project collaborations
- Define roles, responsibilities and expectations in writing before signing any partnership agreement
The YouthTICK Approach
We are currently in the process of building our first partnerships. We are being intentional about this — prioritising organisations that share our values around honesty, youth-centred work, and genuine intercultural dialogue. If you are reading this and recognise your organisation in that description, we would like to hear from you.