Fostering a Culture of Collective Impact

Michael R. Wood

Director, Partnerships & U.S. Network Engagement /  United Way Worldwide

Leslie Wright

Vice President, Community Building, United Way of East Central Iowa

Today’s AgendaWelcome and Introductions

Why Pursue Collective Impact?

What is Collective Impact?

What does it look like in our communities?

Backbone Organizations

Break

Creating the Culture: Skilling up

Assessing your current state

What’s your plan and what do you need?

Adjourn

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What issue is causing your community the most pain

right now?

Why pursue Collective Impact?

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Isolated vs. Collective Impact

Isolated impact Collective Impact

• Funders select individual grantees that offer the most promising solutions.

• Nonprofits work separately and compete to produce the greatest independent impact.

• Evaluation attempts to isolate a particular organization’s impact.

• Large scale change is assumed to depend on scaling a single organization.

• Corporate and government sectors are often disconnected from the efforts of foundations and nonprofits

• Funders understand that social problems and their solutions arise from the interaction of many organizations within a larger system.

• Progress depends on working toward the same goal and measuring the same things.

• Large scale impact depends on increasing cross-sector alignment and learning among many organizations.

• Corporate and government sectors are essential partners

• Organizations actively coordinate their action and share lessons learned.

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WHAT IS COLLECTIVE IMPACT?

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Collective Impact Defined

“The commitment of a group of important actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem.”

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The Five Conditions of Collective Impact

Common Agenda

All participants have a shared vision for change including a common understanding of the problem and a joint approach to solving it through agreed upon actions.

Shared Measurement

Collecting data and measuring results consistently across all participants ensures efforts remain aligned and participants hold each other accountable.

Mutually Reinforcing Activities

Participant activities must be differentiated while still being coordinated through a mutually reinforcing plan of action.

Continuous Communication

Consistent and open communication is needed across the many players to build trust, assure mutual objectives, and create common motivation.

Backbone Support

Creating and managing collective impact requires a separate organization(s) with staff and a specific setof skills to serve as the backbone for the entire initiativeand coordinate participating organizations and agencies.

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Keys to Launching a Collective Impact Initiative

Influential Champion

Financial Resources

Urgency for Change

$

• Commands respect and engages cross-sector leaders

• Focused on solving problem but allows participants to figure out answers for themselves

• Committed funding partners• Sustained funding for at least 2-3 years• Pays for needed infrastructure and planning

• Critical problem in the community• Frustration with existing approaches• Multiple actors calling for change• Engaged funders and policy makers

Source: Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work, 2012; FSG Interviews

Phases of Collective Impact

Components for Success Phase I Phase II Phase III

Governance and Infrastructure

Identify champions and form cross-sector group

Create infrastructure (backbone and processes)

Facilitate and refine 

Strategic Planning

Map the landscape and use data to make case

Create common agenda (goals and strategy)

Support implementation (alignment to goals and strategies)

Community Involvement

Facilitate community outreach

Engage community and build public will

Continue engagement and conduct advocacy

Evaluation and Improvement

Analyze baseline data to identify key issues and gaps

Establish shared metrics (indicators, measurement, and approach)

Collect, track, and report progress (process to learn and improve)

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COLLECTIVE IMPACT IN THE EVERYDAY WORLD

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Discuss at your table:

1. Share an example of Collective Impact work in your community

2. What phase of development is this work in?

3. What is your United Way’s role in the work?

4. What’s working?

5. What is challenging?

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United Way of Greater Milwaukee Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative

Over 50 partners, including representatives from the business, faith, academic, social service, and funding communities

Goal: Reduce births to teens by 46% by 2015

In March of 2006, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Advisory Committee released its results at the United Way Women’s Initiative luncheon in the report If Truth be Told: Teen Pregnancy, Public Health and the Cycle of Poverty. This report resulted in nine core recommendations, including creating a collaborative funding strategy to create a strategic and effective community response to teen pregnancy.

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The Farmer’s Market Story

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Kirkwood Pathways for Academic Career Education and Employment (KPACE)

The Issue:

66% of new and replacement positions in the region will require education beyond a high school diploma through 2014 (Skills 2014)

90% (N-5,700) of the available workforce (members of IowaWORKS) do not have a college credential—11% No GED; 53% HS Diploma; 26% Some College

Kirkwood Pathways for Academic Career Education and Employment (KPACE)

Note:

You Can Be a Piece to the Solution

Collective Impact in Action

• Strive has brought together local leaders to tackle the student achievement crisis and improve education throughout greater Cincinnati and northern Kentucky.

• A core group of community leaders decided to abandon their individual agendas in favor of a collective approach to improving student achievement.

• These leaders realized that fixing one point on the educational continuum--such as better after school programs--wouldn’t make much difference unless all parts of the continuum improved at the same time.

• Strive focused the entire educational community on a single set of goals.

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MOVING FROM BANKER TO BACKBONE

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*These skills can exist within a single organization or within another organization in the effort.

• Have high credibility

• Seen as neutral convener

• Have dedicated staff

• Build key relationships

• Frame issues

• Create a sense of urgency

• Promote learning

• Balance inclusivity vs. expediency

Characteristics of Successful Backbones

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Successful Backbone Organizations Tend to Manage Six Key FunctionsFunction Description

Strategic

Coherence

Oversee strategic direction Analyze landscape, identify gaps

Data

Management

Collect, house, analyze, and disseminate data Manage process of defining and refining common indicators

Facilitation Manage meetings and logistics Act as neutral arbiter between players, as necessary

Communica-

tions

Identify communication strategy to reach stakeholders Manage frequency, content, and delivery of messages

Community

Outreach

Support meaningful cross-sector community engagement Help develop policy agenda and coordinate advocacy

Funding

Coordinate grant writing among initiative partners Seek and manage new grants Possible: Re-grant, serve as fiscal agent

Backbone Organizations

Types of Backbones

Description Examples Pros Cons

Funder-Based

One funder initiates CI strategy as planner, financier, and convener

Calgary Homeless Foundation

Ability to secure start-up funding and recurring resourcesAbility to bring others to the table and leverage other funders

Lack of broad buy-in if CI effort seen as driven by one funderLack of perceived neutrality

New Nonprofit

New entity is created, often by private funding, to serve as backbone

Community Center for Education Results 

Perceived neutrality as facilitator and convenerPotential lack of baggageClarity of focus

Lack of sustainable funding stream and potential questions about funding prioritiesPotential competition with local nonprofits

Existing Nonprofit

Established nonprofit takes the lead in coordinating CI strategy

Opportunity Chicago 

Credibility, clear ownership, and strong understanding of issueExisting infrastructure in place if properly resourced

Potential “baggage” and lack of perceived neutralityLack of attention if poorly funded

Government

Government entity, either at local or state level, drives CI effort

Shape Up Somerville

Public sector “seal of approval”Existing infrastructure in place if properly resourced

Bureaucracy may slow progressPublic funding may not be dependable

Shared Across Multiple Organization

Numerous organizations take ownership of CI wins

Magnolia Place

Lower resource requirements if shared across multiple organizationsBroad buy-in, expertise

Lack of clear accountability with multiple voices at the tableCoordination challenges, leading to potential inefficiencies

Steering Committee Driven

Senior-level committee with ultimate decision-making power

Memphis Fast Forward

Broad buy-in from senior leaders across public, private, and nonprofit sectors

Lack of clear accountability with multiple voices

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Backbone Organizations

Is your United Way a backbone organization?

If not, would you be willing to serve in that role?

What are the barriers or challenges to taking this on?

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Break

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(10 minutes)

PRACTICES THAT FOSTER THE CULTURE

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What do we need?

Inspiration

Dense networks (connectivity)

Trust

Collaboration & Innovation

Fierce Conversations

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Hope fuels

our first steps

toward uncertain destinations.

Sinek’s Golden Circle

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.”

Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVnN4S52F3k

A NETWORKED COMMUNITY

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Creating the network for change:

– Map the players

– Find your gaps

– Find your nodes

– Build a dense network

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Actors In the New York Juvenile Justice System

Source: FSG interviews and analysis; State of NY Juvenile Justice Advisory Group, “State of NY, 2009–2011: Three-Year Comprehensive State Plan for the JJ and Delinquency Prevention Formula Grant Program.”

Characteristics of strong network partnerships

• Communication• Commitment• Equality• Skills• Trust• Respect

A CULTURE OF TRUST

How does trust impact our work?

T = S & C

What is the effect of trust on results?

(S x E)T=R

Covey’s Organizational Trust Audit

The 7 Low Trust Organizational Taxes

1. Redundancy

2. Bureaucracy

3. Politics

4. Disengagement

5. Turnover

6. Churn

7. Fraud

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(The opposites of the 7 Organizational Taxes are also Dividends).

The 7 High Trust Organizational Dividends

1. Increased value

2. Accelerated growth

3. Enhanced innovation

4. Improved collaboration

5. Stronger partnering

6. Better execution

7. Heightened loyalty

The 4 Cores

Integrity

Intent

Capabilities

Results

At your tables…

What’s your trust quotient?

United Way?

Around this issue?

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CULTURE OF COLLABORATION & INNOVATION

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Midnight Lunch: The 4 Phases of Team Collaboration Success

Build capacity in your team structure

Practice discovery learning• Create a new context • Provocative questioning• Unreasonable hypotheses• Solution scenarios• Inquire and reflect

Create a coherent micro culture

Create the structures for speed and scale • Collective intelligence• Smart layers

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A guide for your discovery learning…

Principles for Building Effective Community Impact Strategies

1. Establish your target outcomes

2. Uncover the underlying issues

3. Choose strategies and approaches that create lasting change

4. Create a plan for implementing those strategies

5. Decide how to measure, communicate and improve results

Fierce Conversations

Interrogate reality

Provoke learning

Tackle tough issues

Enrich relationships

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ASSESS YOURSELF

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Are you ready?

Ir = T x CRd x Vc x Kht

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BUILDING STAYING POWER

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Balance the Tensions

• Patience versus urgency

• Data driven versus innovative

• Digital versus relational

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Questions for you…

What will you do?

What supports do you need to do this work well?

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Great Resources:

The Answer to How is Yes Peter Block

The Abundant Community John McKnight and Peter Block

The Medici Effect Frans Johansson

Fierce Conversations Susan Scott

Midnight Lunch Sarah Miller Caldicott

Start with Why Simon Sinek

Reinventing Social Change David Gershon

socialchange2.comTo Be Fearless Case

Foundation