Environmental groups, multi-stakeholder partnerships, water conservancy districts, agricultural conservation districts, and local or county governments have all led SMPs. The appropriate leadership may be an obvious choice or leadership may emerge through stakeholder discussion. In all cases, it is worth openly acknowledging the qualifications that justify the chosen lead organization to the entire stakeholder group so the stakeholder group can understand the choice and support leadership.

Capacity and culture influence leadership success. The bigger the geographic scale of the project, the greater the time commitment. Large-scale projects may require coordinating multiple contractors, significant financial management, and simultaneously overseeing numerous tasks. When selecting leadership, consider whether an organization is ready to take on these responsibilities. If a single organization doesn’t have the capacity to lead, consultants can be used as coordinators or a team of organizations can work together.

The culture in the project area can determine what leadership is a good fit. Be honest about who has existing positive relationships with different stakeholder groups. In some cases, SMPs initiated by environmental organizations have unintentionally left agricultural water users feeling that their interests were not represented and their positive contributions were not counted. Those with legal or regulatory oversight over water should be consulted on leadership structure because they have knowledge of how the river works, and the power to derail the effort.