collective impact for scope, scale, and...
TRANSCRIPT
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Prepared for:
Promise Neighborhoods National Network Conference
July 9, 2015
Collective Impact for Scope,
Scale, and Sustainability
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What Is Collective Impact?
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AGENDA
Collective Impact Overview and “How To’s”
Lessons Learned from Venture Philanthropy Partners
Role Play Exercise
Group Discussion
4 © FSG |
HANDS ON SUPPORT
FSG works on Collective Impact in three
mutually reinforcing ways
Juvenile justice in NY State
Childhood obesity in Dallas
Substance abuse on Staten Island
Cradle to career in King County
Pre-term birth in Fresno
Health in the Rio Grande Valley
Diabetes in Minnesota
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
LEARNING COMMUNITY
www.collectiveimpactforum.org
The Collective Impact Forum is a
field-wide digital resource designed to
help curate and disseminate
knowledge, tools, and best practices
that support effective collective impact
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Traditional approaches are not solving our
most complex social problems
• Funders select individual grantees
Isolated Impact • Organizations work separately
and compete
• Corporate and government sectors
are often disconnected from
foundations and nonprofits
• Evaluation attempts to isolate a
particular organization’s impact
• Large scale change is assumed to
depend on scaling organizations
Source: FSG SSIR Collective Impact Article, Winter 2011; FSG Interviews; FSG Interviews & Analysis
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Imagine a different approach – multiple players
working together to solve complex issues
• Understand that social problems – and
their solutions – arise from interaction
of many organizations within larger
system Collective Impact
• Cross-sector alignment with
government, nonprofit, philanthropic
and corporate sectors as partners
• Organizations actively coordinating
their action and sharing lessons
learned
• All working toward the same goal and
measuring the same things
Source: FSG SSIR Collective Impact Article, Winter 2011; FSG Interviews; FSG Interviews & Analysis
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Collective Impact requires sustained dedication
to cross-sector coordination and alignment
Isolated
Impact
Collective
Impact Collaboration
/ Coalitions
• All relevant actors work
toward the same goal and
measure the same things
• Cross-sector alignment,
includes “strange
bedfellows”
• Organizations actively
coordinate their action
and share lessons
learned
• Great initiatives, projects
and pilots that do not
coordinate with one
another
• Duplication of efforts and
inability to compare
results and track big
picture progress
• Sense of competition
and turf battles
• Agreement and
excitement around a
common “topic”
• Too often, parties involved
only include the “usual
suspects”
• Meetings and working
groups typically lack real
alignment or shared
measures / accountability
8 © FSG |
There are five conditions of Collective Impact
Common
agenda
All participants share a vision for change that includes a
common understanding of the problem and a joint
approach to solving the problem through agreed-upon actions
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Shared
measurement system
All participants agree on how to measure and report on
progress, with a short list of common indicators identified
and used to drive learning and improvement
2
Mutually
reinforcing activities
A diverse set of stakeholders, typically across sectors,
coordinate a set of differentiated activities through a
mutually reinforcing plan of action
3
Continuous
communication
All players engage in frequent and structured open
communication to build trust, assure mutual objectives, and
create common motivation
4
Backbone
support
An independent, dedicated staff (with funding!) guides
the initiative’s vision and strategy, supports aligned
activities, establishes shared measurement practices, builds
public will, advances policy, and mobilizes resources
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9 © FSG |
Collective Impact requires mindset shifts
Technical solutions
to problems
Adaptive solutions
to problems
Silver bullet Silver buckshot
Credit hoarded Credit as shared
currency
Focus on evidence Focus on evidence
and relationships
Source: Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work, 2012; Essential Mindset Shifts for Collective Impact; 2014.
Content Expertise Content and
context expertise
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Launching a Collective Impact initiative has
four prerequisites
Influential Champion
and Supportive
Leadership
• Champions are respected by and have the ability to
engage cross-sector leaders
• Government leadership is engaged
Urgency for Change • Critical, complex problem in the community
• Frustration with existing approaches
Availability of
Resources
• Committed, potential funding partners with
sustained funding for at least 3 – 5 years
Basis for Collaboration • Trusted relationships among cross-sector actors
• Presence of existing collaborative efforts
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Develop strategies
Sustain action and impact
Collective Impact efforts tend to transpire over
four phases
• Kick-off and build
out Steering
Committee (SC)
to champion the
effort
• Create baseline
landscape and
data mapping to
identify key issues
and gaps
• Engage cross-
sector
community
stakeholders
beyond the SC
• Create common
agenda,
including a vision,
goals and
indicators to
measure
progress
• Share and
finalize this
common agenda
with community
stakeholders
• Research the
situation on the
ground, identify
coordination
challenges and
opportunities
• Engage key players
to assess readiness
for collective impact
and build buy-in
• Develop
recommendations
and action plan
2 3 4 1
• Design the backbone
organization
• Develop strategies, including
the formation of working groups
• Develop implementation plan
(i.e., budget, timeline, backbone
capacity building,
communications plan, etc.)
• Design an approach to shared
measurement
~3 months ~4 months ~5 months ~6 months + ongoing
Scope issue and
assess readiness
Organize
for impact
Initiate
action
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Backbones support is critical in providing six
major functions
Backbones must balance the tension between coordinating and maintaining
accountability, while staying behind the scenes to establish collective ownership
Guide Vision and Strategy
Build Public Will
Support Aligned Activities
Mobilize Resources
Establish Shared Measurement Practices
Advance Policy
Source: FSG Interviews and Analysis
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With Collective Impact initiatives, a broad set of
partners work to achieve a common vision
* Adapted from Listening to the Stars: The Constellation Model of Collaborative Social Change, by Tonya Surman and Mark Surman, 2008.
partner-driven
action
strategic guidance
and support = community
partner (e.g.,
nonprofit, funder,
business, public
agency, resident) Ecosystem of
Community Partners
Backbone
Support
(or set of
organizations
that collectively
play backbone
function)
Steering
Committee
Work
Group
Work
Group
Work
Group Work
Group
Chair Chair
Chair
Chair
Chair
Chair
Chair
Chair
Common Agenda and Shared Metrics
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Evaluating Collective Impact requires a mindset
shift for many funders and practitioners
Evaluating Collective Impact
as a Complex Intervention
Typical Focus of
Program Evaluation
Assessing the impact of a
specific intervention
Evaluating effects and impact
according to a predetermined
set of outcomes
Assessing multiple parts of the
system, including its components
and connections
Evaluating intended and
unintended outcomes as they
emerge over time
Using logic models that imply
cause and effect, and linear
relationships
Evaluating non-linear and non-
directional relationships
between the intervention and its
outcomes
Embedding feedback and
learning through the evaluation
Providing findings at the end of
the evaluation
Source: FSG Interviews and Analysis
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Five reasons why collective impact efforts
should continuously engage communities
1) Understand pressing systemic
community challenges • Begin a process of understanding the
issue
• Clarify questions that arise about the
challenge
1) Co-create solutions • Spark innovative problem-solving
rooted in the “lived experience” of the
community
• Identify and spread unique solutions
that exist within the community
1) Verify the direction • Get feedback on specific strategies
and indicators from selected
communities, particularly those who
will be the ultimate beneficiaries
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2
3
1) Expand the reach of strategies
• Expand the reach of adoption of
initiative strategies
• Evoke and sustain the will to take
aligned action
1) Build community capacity to lead
and sustain change
• Train stakeholders in skills of
effective collaboration and strategy
execution
• Share resources and learning
across the community to support
scaling best practices
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5
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AGENDA
Collective Impact Overview and “How To’s”
Lessons Learned from Venture Philanthropy Partners
Role Play Exercise
Group Discussion
COLLECTIVE IMPACT: LESSONS LEARNED
Our Mission
*Common agenda *Shared measurement system *Mutually reinforcing activities *Continuous communication *Backbone support
youthCONNECT Collective Impact
*City or regional footprint *Formal leadership council drives the agenda
*More targeted footprint *Service providers and front-line staff drive the agenda
youthCONNECT is Collective Impact-Inspired
What is the youthCONNECT Model?
Setting the Table
There Will Be Challenges
But Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
Get a Boost To Overcome Challenges
Make a Plan to Have an Impact
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AGENDA
Collective Impact Overview and “How To’s”
Lessons Learned from Venture Philanthropy Partners
Role Play Exercise
Group Discussion
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Collective Impact role play
Instructions
1. On your own, review the instructions at your table
and read about your role. (5 minutes)
2. In your group, begin the Role Play. Address the 3
questions listed on your instructions. One
member of your group will play the role of
Local Consultant / Facilitator. (15 minutes)
3. Back in our large group, we will debrief and
discuss what we experienced.
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AGENDA
Collective Impact Overview and “How To’s”
Lessons Learned from Venture Philanthropy Partners
Role Play Exercise
Group Discussion
An Initiative of FSG and Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions 29
© 2014 FSG
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Thank You!
To talk more with FSG about Collective Impact:
Collective Impact resources available on
FSG’s website:
www.fsg.org/approach-areas/collective-impact
Join the conversation on the Collective Impact
Forum website: www.collectiveimpactforum.org
Robert Albright, Associate Director,
Collective Impact Forum