Not-for-profits increasingly are taking on big issues, such as global warming and economic development. Some are turning to a relatively new approach known as “collective impact.” Such cross-sector coordination may help nonprofits achieve greater change than isolated interventions by individual groups.
More than collaboration
Collective impact is more than just collaboration. Its originators describe it as the commitment of important players from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem. Players include nonprofits, government, businesses and communities.
For example, a few years ago, the Hampton Roads Community Foundation in Southeast Virginia initiated a regionwide process to improve early care and education programs. Almost 100 stakeholders planned a program that would unite previously disparate efforts and participants. Since then, the “Minus 9 to 5” initiative has been able to align actions across five cities in Virginia.
5 conditions
Collective impact adherents typically cite five prerequisites necessary to produce successful initiatives:
Commitment required
Collective impact projects can succeed in ways that simply aren’t available to individual organizations — or even joint ventures. But the process is complicated and time-consuming. Make sure you know what you’re getting into before signing on to such an initiative.
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