Social Impact Blog

I didn’t go to “Foundations on the Hill” (FOTH) but was there in spirit through the data and stories collected by FSG and CF Insights. On March 21-22 representatives of organized philanthropy gathered in Washington, D.C., for two days of face-to-face meetings with lawmakers and their staff.

What’s in a Name?

In the case of “Collective Impact,” apparently a lot.

Last year, FSG coined the term “Collective Impact” in an eponymous Stanford Social Innovation Review article that described its five key practices. These highly structured practices enable broad cross sector coalitions of funders, nonprofits, companies and government agencies to work together effectively to make progress on large scale social problems.

Aren’t you tired of hearing these point blank statements demonizing one company and praising another for their social responsibility or lack thereof? Go to any conference on the subject and you are bound to get such a salvo. We do love simplification, and isn’t easier to get a point across to say that “a Nestlé gets it,” but “a Unilever doesn’t” (or was it the other way around?).