Tell the truth. Your collective impact effort for social change is no doubt collective—but does it really have impact? If your experience is like mine (through five initiatives and counting), I suspect the answer is, “Not as much as it could.” And I bet I know why: It’s your backbone. Most nonprofits know the five central components of any cross-sector, collective impact initiative. The first four—a common agenda, a shared measurement system, mutually reinforcing activities, and continuous communication—may take work to accomplish, but they are not hard to understand. Basically, they spell out the meaning of the word "collaboration." It’s the fifth one—a backbone organization—that’s really tough. A backbone organization is supposed to: guide vision and strategy, support aligned activities, establish shared measurement practices, build public will, advance policy, and mobilize funding. This all sounds good, until it’s time to decide what it really means. I believe the problem comes down to this question: Is the backbone organization a facilitative body or an executive one? - See more at:
http://ssir.org/articles/entry...sthash.TD4bAD5T.dpufTell the truth. Your collective impact effort for social change is no doubt collective—but does it really have impact? If your experience is like mine (through five initiatives and counting), I suspect the answer is, “Not as much as it could.” And I bet I know why: It’s your backbone. Most nonprofits know the five central components of any cross-sector, collective impact initiative. The first four—a common agenda, a shared measurement system, mutually reinforcing activities, and continuous communication—may take work to accomplish, but they are not hard to understand. Basically, they spell out the meaning of the word "collaboration." It’s the fifth one—a backbone organization—that’s really tough. A backbone organization is supposed to: guide vision and strategy, support aligned activities, establish shared measurement practices, build public will, advance policy, and mobilize funding. This all sounds good, until it’s time to decide what it really means. I believe the problem comes down to this question: Is the backbone organization a facilitative body or an executive one? - See more at:
http://ssir.org/articles/entry...sthash.TD4bAD5T.dpufMost nonprofits know the five central components of any cross-sector, collective impact initiative. The first four—a common agenda, a shared measurement system, mutually reinforcing activities, and continuous communication—may take work to accomplish, but they are not hard to understand. Basically, they spell out the meaning of the word "collaboration."
It’s the fifth one—a backbone organization—that’s really tough. A backbone organization is supposed to: guide vision and strategy, support aligned activities, establish shared measurement practices, build public will, advance policy, and mobilize funding.
This all sounds good, until it’s time to decide what it really means. I believe the problem comes down to this question: Is the backbone organization a facilitative body or an executive one?
For more, written by Spencer Critchley, go to: http://ssir.org/articles/entry...ation_have_backbone?
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