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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

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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

1

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

1

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

4

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

Join the Growing Collective Impact Movement at

www.collectiveimpactforum.org

Forum Partners

Co-Catalysts

The Collective Impact Forum communities features:

• 11,000+ members and growing

• 200+ resources on collective impact, including articles, case studies, videos,

and tools, all free to access

• Community discussion forums where members engage on topics and

queries related to collective impact

• Multiple communities of practice, with over 25% of the membership from

backbone organizations

• News from the field, including RFPs, job postings, workshops, conferences,

and webinars

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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

Robert.Albright@collectiveimpactforum.org