The reason so many partnerships are dysfunctional and unstrategic is because they are not interactive from top to bottom. Consequently most durable partnerships can be visualised as a ladder, with the vertical sides representing the two organisations in the partnership and the rungs between the two going all the way from top to bottom. At the risk of taking the analogy too far, partnerships involving many partners can be visualised as a veritable climbing frame.
The key to success is not operating partnerships in a static way: to be durable and effective, they have to be pro-actively and non-bureaucratically managed along account management disciplines, which takes time and effort rather than money.