Collective Impact Blog

We recently came across the work of the Bürgerstiftung Stuttgart, the Community Foundation of Stuttgart, Germany, which is leveraging the idea of structured roundtables to catalyze multi-sector action on social issues.

A recent essay, by Irene Armbruster, a Board Member of the Breuninger Stiftung, which is funding the initiative, discusses the characteristics of effective roundtables, including:

• A clear, unambiguous goal;
• A shared attitude of among participants;
• A “host and caretaker” that ensures the roundtable is an event participants look forward to; and
• Shared assumptions, including the “deep conviction that people are in fact capable of creating shared solutions.”

In January, my colleagues and I published Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work to help expand the understanding of collective impact and provide greater guidance for people and organizations seeking to initiate and implement collective impact initiatives. The response has been encouraging, and we continue to learn more about colleagues in the field who are using the five key conditions to catalyze and sustain social change in a variety of areas, from improving health outcomes for the most vulnerable to reducing underage substance abuse.