Publishing with a non-profit: A case study of the partnership between Greystone Books and the David Suzuki Foundation

In today’s unpredictable trade book market, savvy publishers are developing strategies to increase their financial stability. A for-profit publisher partnering with a non-profit organization may not seem like an obvious direction, but the partnership between Greystone Books and the David Suzuki Foundation shows that it can be a path to success. Established in 1993, the partnership gave the publisher a larger acquisitions budget, authority in the environmental book-publishing niche, and a greater awareness of environmental issues and potential writers that they might not otherwise be connected with. The David Suzuki Foundation benefited not only from an expanded communications network but also from the legitimization that working with Greystone offered this perceived “left-wing gang of enviros.” This case study explores the founding and development of the partnership and offers other publishers key insights on establishing partnerships of their own.