Blog

We have been inspired watching the field of collective impact progress over the past five years, as thousands of practitioners, funders, and policymakers around the world employ the approach to help solve complex social problems at a large scale. The field’s understanding of what it takes to put the collective impact approach into practice continues to evolve through the contributions of many who are undertaking the deep work of collaborative social change, and their successes build on decades of work around effective cross-sector collaboration.

A closer look at the diversity of collective impact efforts reveals a diversity of backbone infrastructure designs as well. Depending on the size and scope of the collective impact effort, and the unique context it is operating in, the backbone may look and be structured differently.

We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven't so far. - Ronald Edmonds That quote encapsulates the challenge and the commitment of RGV Focus--to ensure all students in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) of Texas earn a degree or credential that leads to a meaningful career.

The Collective Impact Forum and FSG recently co-hosted a 3-part webinar series, “Getting Started with Collective Impact.” This series prompted some engaging dialogue among webinar speakers and attendees about challenges and opportunities when initiating collective impact. Several notable themes and thought-provoking questions emerged during each webinar:

This is Efrain Gutierrez with FSG and Grisel M. Robles-Schrader with Robles-Schrader Consulting. We want to share some suggestions to help cisgender heterosexual allies support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQ+) communities in culturally responsive evaluations.

The business community can be a powerful partner in collective impact. The overwhelming majority of collective impact initiative leaders we surveyed for our new report said that business involvement enhanced their initiatives’ ability to improve educational outcomes for children impacted by poverty. The value business brings to an initiative is significant, from relationships with government officials at all levels, to access to resources, to expertise in designing and executing strategies. These attributes often complement those brought by nonprofits organizations, foundations, public education and other participants. We believe, and more importantly, initiative leaders believe that business involvement materially enhances the odds that collective impact will live up to its considerable potential.

The New Year is a great time for reflection and often, a much needed opportunity for rejuvenation. (You can find some excellent self-care recommendations over at Nonprofit with Balls. We’re big fans of the “no email during the holidays” rule.) For our last blog of the year, we’re excited to share the Collective Impact Forum’s most popular reads and resources for 2015.

Vu Le is an important voice in the nonprofit sector. He speaks truth to power and calls out the elephants in our collective room. Many critics approach their fields with righteousness; Vu approaches with refreshing humility as one struggling with these questions and willing to be wrong. On November 30th, he posted “Why Communities of Color Are Getting Frustrated with Collective Impact.” He may find it surprising that The Collective Impact Forum not only welcomes his critique, but is broadcasting it as an important contribution to our field. I am writing to share some thoughts about why his essay is so important. I hope others will also join this discussion.

A while ago I wrote “Collective Impact: Resistance is Futile,” detailing the frustrations of CI and comparing it to The Borg on Star Trek. “Controlled by a hive mind that neutralizes any sort of individualism, and comprising billions of annexed individuals, [The Borg is] strong and terrifying, like an army of zombie robots, each with one eye that has a laser beam.” That was my first impression of collective impact, at least the way it’s being playing out in Seattle.

Today, we are excited to release our Cross-sector Partnership Assessment. In our work supporting over 70 collective impact initiatives in cities around the country, we’ve found that initiatives often struggle to build and maintain their cross-sector partnerships. So, Living Cities developed the Assessment to help cross-sector partnerships, particularly collective impact partnerships, understand how to best work with stakeholders to achieve dramatically better results for low-income people in cities.