Collective Impact

Collective Impact is  the commitment of a group of actors from different sectors with a common agenda to solve a specific social problem, using a structured form of collaboration . The concept of collective impact was first articulated in the Stanford Social Innovation Review article 2011 Collective Impact, written by John Kania, CEO of FSG, and Mark Kramer, Kennedy School at Harvard and co-founder of FSG. Collective Impact was voted the #2 Philanthropic Buzzword for 2011, and has been recognized by the White House Council on Community Solutions as an important framework for progress on social issues.

The concept of collective impact is based on the idea that in order for organizations to create lasting solutions to large-scale social problems, they must (1) coordinate their efforts and (2) work together around a clearly defined goal . The collective impact approach (a) contrasts with «single impact,» where organizations work primarily alone to solve societal problems, and (b) builds on earlier work on collaborative leadership ., focused on collective goals, strategic partnerships, collective and independent actions aligned with those goals, shared responsibility, and a backbone with “institutional concern.” Collective Impact argues that organizations must form cross-sector coalitions to achieve meaningful and sustainable progress on social issues.

Five conditions for collective impact: Initiatives must meet five process criteria to be considered “collective impact”:

Common Agenda: All participating organizations (government agencies, non-profit organizations, community members, etc.) have a shared vision for social change that includes a common understanding of the problem and a joint approach to solving the problem through agreed actions.

Shared Measurement System: Agreement on the ways in which success will be measured and reported with a short list of key indicators across all participating organizations.

Mutual reinforcing activities: Engagement by a diverse set of stakeholders, generally from all sectors, coordinating a set of differentiated activities through a mutually reinforcing action plan.

Ongoing Communication: Frequent communications over a long period of time between key players within and between organizations, to build trust and inform continuous learning and adaptation of strategy.

Backbone or Backbone Organization: Ongoing support provided by an independent team dedicated to reinforcing a given collective impact. This backbone organization tends to play six roles to move in that direction: (1) Guidelines for Vision and Strategy; (2) Support for the alignment of actions; (3) Establish joint measurement practices; (4) Strengthen political “will” and commitment; (5) Political Influence; and (6) Mobilize financial resources.