Idea-born – public partnership (IPP) is a state-initiated form of cooperation that are supposed to make it easier for civil society to cooperate with the public sector to solve complex social problems. The study explores how municipalities organize collaboration through IPP and examine opportunities and obstacles with the form of collaboration. Theoretically, the study is guided by concepts from Emerson et al' (2012) model of collaborative governance. The study adopts a qualitative research strategy, and the material was collected from semi-structured interviews with people who work in both the public and idea-based sectors. The results of the study show that the interaction through IPP is complex. There is no predetermined template – IPP becomes what the parties make it. Since there is no uniform definition, there is also no given organization. The parties establish the organization deemed necessary to achieve the purpose of the collaboration. IPP can be preceded by time- and resource consuming processes or be a fast track to collaboration. Likewise, the IPP organization differs in terms of incentives for collaboration, number of participating parties, duration, steering groups, meeting frequency, meeting constellations and personnel administration. The study also shows that the respondents experience following opportunities with IOP; the actors complement each other; share and maximize resources and that the municipality can employ coordinators who are responsible for the IPP work. The obstacles appear to be inadequate procedural and institutional arrangements; lack of knowledge; insufficient dialogue and that trust is damaged by the voice function of civil society.