Collective Impact Blog

FSG, the Strive Network, Tamarack, and the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions recently hosted a three-day workshop for leaders from backbone organizations of mature collective impact initiatives. This blog is part of a series sharing learning and reflection from the workshop.


FSG's John Kania and Fay Hanleybrown at the Backbone Workshop

During the recent workshop for backbone leaders in Cincinnati, one of the questions that arose time and again was: How do backbone organizations mobilize the funding and resources required to support and sustain the work of the collective impact initiative over time?

by Jennifer Splansky and John Kania

Complex social problems cannot be solved by a single organization, predetermined solution, or simple recipe. Our new Stanford Social Innovation Review article Embracing Emergence: How Collective Impact Addresses Complexity explores how collective impact creates the conditions for change to happen differently, when new or unanticipated opportunities emerge from the work being done by the collective.

One of the most difficult elements of creating and managing an effective collective impact initiative is shared measurement - the use of a common set of measures to monitor performance, track progress toward goals, and to learn what is working and not working.  As discussed in my colleague Fay Hanleybrown’s September blog, while challenging, the actual process of defining shared measures can in itself lead to greater alignment and coordination of participating organizations.