1. Implementing the Lead Agency Model for Collective Impact
Liz Weaver
Vice President,
Tamarack – An Institute for Community Engagement -

2. Online Learning Communities
For Collaborative Leaders who use collective impact approaches to address complex community issues.
tamarackcci.ca
For individuals who care about community, the vibrancy of neighbourhoods and the unique role of citizens in social change.
seekingcommunity.ca
For Cities that develop and implement comprehensive poverty reduction strategies
vibrantcommunities.ca

3. Workshop Overview Collective Impact and Community Change
Collaboration Spectrum
Complexity + Community Change
Pre-Conditions of Collective Impact
Conditions of Collective Impact
Implementing the Lead Agency Model for Collective Impact
Questions?

4. An Overview of Collective Impact
Greater Cincinnati Foundation
Collective Impact: Pulling Together

5. The Collaboration Spectrum
Trust
Compete
Co-exist
Communicate
Cooperate
Coordinate
Collaborate
Integrate
Competition for clients, resources, partners, public attention.
No systematic connection between agencies.
Inter-agency information sharing (e.g. networking).
As needed, often informal, interaction, on discrete activities or projects.
Organizations systematically adjust and align work with each other for greater outcomes.
Longer term interaction based on shared mission, goals; shared decision-makers and resources.
Fully integrated programs, planning, funding.
Turf
Loose
Tight

6. Complexity + Community Change

7. Use expertise, experiment and
Learn-by-doing,
see what emerges,
adapt.
Create stability, look for
opportunities to innovate.
Wicked Problems
& Social Messes
Develop common
ground,
compromise
or compete.
Follow the
‘best practice’
recipe.
Use expertise, experiment and
build knowledge.

8. Characteristics of Complex Problems
Complex problems are difficult to frame
The cause and effect relationships are unclear
There are diverse stakeholders
Each experience of is unique
The characteristics & dynamics of the issue evolves
There is no obvious right or wrong set of solutions
There is no objective measure of success

10. Collective Impact

11. From Isolated Impact to Collective Impact
Funders select individual grantees
Organizations work separately
Evaluation attempts to isolate a particular organization’s impact
Large scale change is assumed to depend on scaling organizations
Corporate and government sectors are often disconnected from foundations and non-profits.
Collective Impact
Funders understand that social problems – and their solutions – arise from multiple interacting factors
Cross-sector alignment with government, nonprofit, philanthropic and corporate sectors as partners
Organizations actively coordinating their actions and sharing lessons learned
All working toward the same goal and measuring the same things

12. Used for Many Complex Issues
Teen Pregnancy
Health
Education
Homelessness
Community Safety
Poverty

13. Collective Impact – Framing Questions
Do we aim to effect ―needle- change (i.e., 10% or more) on a community-wide metric?
Do we believe that a long-term investment (i.e., three to five-plus years) by stakeholders is necessary to achieve success?
Do we believe that cross-sector engagement is essential for community-wide change?
Are we committed to using measurable data to set the agenda and improve over time?
Are we committed to having community members as partners and producers of impact?

14. The Phases of Collective Impact
Governance
and
Infrastructure
Strategic
Planning
Phases of Collective Impact
The Phases of Collective Impact
Community
Involvement
Phase I
Generate Ideas
and Dialogue
Phase II
Initiate Action
Phase III
Organize for Impact
Phase IV
Sustain Action
and Impact
Components for Success
Convene community stakeholders
Identify champions and form cross-sector group
Evaluation
And
Improvement
Create infrastructure (backbone and processes)
Facilitate and refine
Continue engagement and conduct advocacy
Support implementation (alignment to goal and strategies)
Collect, track, and report progress (process to learn and improve)
Hold dialogue about issue, community context, and available resources
Map the landscape and use data to make case
Create common agenda (common goals and strategy)
Facilitate community outreach specific to goal
Facilitate community outreach
Engage community and build public will
Determine if there is consensus/urgency to move forward
Analyze baseline data to ID key issues and gaps
Establish shared metrics (indicators, measurement, and approach)

15. Preconditions for Collective Impact
Influential Champion(s)
Urgency of issue
Adequate Resources

16. 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
Facilitators Notes:
This slide provides an overview of the five core conditions of collective impact and brief descriptions of each. These will be described in more detail in the next set of slides.
The facilitator can just introduce the five conditions: common agenda, shared measurement, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communications and backbone support.
Consistent and open communication is needed across the many players to build trust, assure mutual objectives, and appreciate common motivation
Continuous Communication
Backbone Support
Creating and managing collective impact requires a dedicated staff and a specific set of skills to serve as the backbone for the entire initiative and coordinate participating organizations and agencies 11
Source: FSG

17. Common Agenda Define the challenge to be addressed.
Acknowledge that a collective impact approach is required.
Establish clear and shared goal(s) for change.
Identify principles to guide joint work together.

18. Communication in Tillamook County, Oregon
Teen Pregnancy
According to the Health Department summary, Tillamook county "found that forming partnerships and working together toward a desired result can bring about astounding results. ... Their turn-around was an evolutionary process, with new partners bringing contributions forward at different times."
No Shared Agenda
Reduce Teenagers Giving Birth
Reduce Teenagers Getting Pregnant

19. Building a Common Agenda
Prior History
Positive or negative impact
Pressing Issue
Galvanize leaders across sectors
Data
Determine what you need to understand impact of the issue on community
Community Context
Is there community buy in? Determine community leverage opportunities
Core Group
Determine who needs to be involved in core group
Convener
Trusted leadership to facilitate collaborative efforts
Community Engagement
Determine how to engage the broader community in the effort

20. What makes the difference between a good movie and a bad movie?
Common Agenda
What makes the difference between a good movie and a bad movie?
“Getting everyone involved to make the same movie!”
- Francis Ford Coppola

21. Shared Measurement
Identify key measures that capture critical outcomes.
Establish systems for gathering and analyzing measures.
Create opportunities for “making-sense” of changes in indicators.

22. Collaboration in Cincinnati
Educational Achievement
STRIVE in Cincinnati
Over three hundred educational organizations, human service groups, government agencies and philanthropies and private businesses.
Shared agreement on 15 key milestones and 72 measures along a student road-map of success.
A strong back-bone organization supporting a variety of “networks” supporting each key milestone.
Measureable progress in most key indicators in recent years.
Homelessness

24. Strive Partnership Goals:
Working together along the educational continuum to drive better results in education so that every child…
• Is prepared for school
• Is supported inside and outside of school
• Succeeds academically
• Enrolls in some form of postsecondary education
• Graduates and enters a career
Results: 10% increase in graduation rates in Cincinnati since 2003; 16% increase in college enrollment rate in Covington, KY since 2004

25. Thinking About Shared Measurement
Process: # of people/orgs at table, # of community presentations, articles, etc
Progress: # of programs, # of new initiatives, etc
Policy: policy changes in own or other organizations, new investments, gov. policy changes
Population : # of people moved out of poverty, # of high school graduates, # of low birth weight babies

26. Shared Measurement Who is collecting the data?
Will they share the data?
How effective is the data source?
What data do we have to collect?
What resources will we need?
Does this measure actually move us on our collective impact agenda?

27. Mutually Reinforcing Activities
Agreement on key outcomes.
Orchestration and specialization.
Complementary – sometimes “joined up” - strategies to achieve outcomes.

28. A city-wide collective impact initiative

29. Memphis Fast Forward

30. Coordination in Saint John
Poverty
Housing
Transportation
Education to Employment
Early Childhood Development
Workforce Development
Neighborhood Renewal

31. Continuous Communication
Create formal and informal measures for keeping people informed
Communication is open and reflect a diversity of styles
Difficult issues are surfaced, discussed and addressed

32. Cooperation in Karelia, Finland
Heart Disease
Common Agenda: reduce heart disease.
Focus on measuring & reducing a variety of key risk factors (e.g. high fat food diet, smoking, etc.)
Emphasis on mutually reinforcing strategies with multisectoral actors (e.g. changing farming practices, media profile, trade policy around production and consumption of dairy products).
Backbone support provided by regional health authority.
Close collaboration with a range of organizations has been an essential element of success.
Diabetes Voice. May Volume 53. Special Issue.

33. In and Out Communication

34. Backbone Organization(s)
Guide vision & strategy
Support aligned activities
Established shared measurements
Build public will
Advance policy
Mobilize funding
Like a manager at a construction site who attends to the whole building while carpenters, plumbers and electricians come and go, the support staff keep the collaborative process moving along, even as the participants may change.
Jay Conner
Community Visions, Community Solutions: Grantmaking for Comprehensive Impact

35. Implementing the Lead Agency Model for Collective Impact

36. Six Core Functions for the Backbone Organization
Guide Vision and Strategy
Support Aligned Activities
Establish Shared Measurement Practices
Build Public Will
Guide Vision and Strategy: Build a common understanding of the problem; Provide strategic guidance to develop a common agenda
Support Aligned Activities: Convene external stakeholders to do mutually reinforcing activities; Facilitate communication and collaboration; Catalyze or incubate new initiatives
Establish Shared Measurement Practices: Collect, analyze, interpret, and report data; Catalyze or develop shared measurement systems; Provide technical assistance for building partners’ data capacity
Build public will: Build public will, consensus, and commitment; Create a sense of urgency and articulate a call to action; Support community member engagement activities
Advance policy: Advocate for an aligned policy agenda
Mobilize Funding: Mobilize and align public and private funding to support goals
Advance Policy
Mobilize Funding
Backbones must balance the tension between coordinating and maintaining accountability, while staying behind the scenes to establish collective ownership
Source: FSG Interviews and Analysis

37. Six Key Functions for the Backbone Organization
Build a common understanding of the problem
Provide strategic guidance to develop a common agenda
Ensure mutually reinforcing activities take place:
Coordinate and facilitate communication and collaboration
Convene partners and key external stakeholders
Catalyze or incubate new initiatives or collaborations
Provide technical assistance
Create paths for, and recruit, new partners
Seek opportunities for alignment with other efforts
Collect, analyze, interpret, and report data
Catalyze or develop shared measurement systems
Provide technical assistance for building partners’ data capacity
Build public will, consensus and commitment:
Create a sense of urgency and articulate a call to action
Support community member engagement activities
Produce and manage external communications
Advocate for an aligned policy agenda
Mobilize and align public and private funding to support goals
Guide Vision and Strategy
Support Aligned Activities
Establish Shared Measurement Practices
Build Public Will
Advance Policy
Mobilize Funding

38. Common Misperceptions about the Role of Backbone Organizations
The backbone organization sets the agenda for the group
The backbone organization drives the solutions
The backbone organization receives all the funding
The role of backbone can be self appointed rather than selected by the community
The role of backbone isn’t fundamentally different from “business as usual” in terms of staffing, time, and resources
Source: FSG Interviews and Analysis

39. Effective Backbone Leaders Share Common Characteristics
Stakeholders describe backbone organization leaders as:
Visionary
Results-Oriented
Collaborative, Relationship Builder
Focused, but Adaptive
Charismatic and Influential Communicator
Politic
Humble
“Someone who has a big picture perspective—[who] understands how the pieces fit together, is sensitive to the dynamics, and is energetic and passionate.”
Source: FSG Interviews and Analysis
Source: FSG interviews

40. Things to Consider in Collective Impact
Patient capital
Persistence for longer term, systems change
Align partners across sectors to common agenda
Legitimize the work of the collaborative table
No playbook, support and advance the skills and capacity of collaborative partners

41. Reflecting on Collective Impact
Think – Pair – Share
What have I learned that I can apply to my role as lead agency?
What other questions do I have?

42. Tamarack Learning Opportunities
Learn together through:
Monthly tele-learning Seminars
Engage! e-magazine
Face-to-Face Learning Events
Online Learning Communities
Communities of Practice

43. Tamarack Learning Communities
Tamarack CCI
For Collaborative Leaders who use collective impact approaches to address complex community issues.
Vibrant Communities: Cities Reducing Poverty
For Cities that develop and implement comprehensive poverty reduction strategies
Seeking Community
For individuals who care about community, the vibrancy of neighbourhoods and the unique role of citizens in social change.

44. Deepening Community – Just Released!
Read the latest book by Paul Born
President of Tamarack Institute
If you do, here are some fun ways to get involved in the Deepening Community campaign:
Read the book & post a short review on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Indigo.ca, GoodReads.com or iBook
Go to the “Get Involved” page on
Write a post about your thoughts/ideas on the book or on your experiences of community at
Wishing you joy as you deepen community!

45. Upcoming Tamarack Learning Events
Learn more & register:

46. Additional Resources
Follow my blog:
Regular updates about Collaboration and Collective Impact are posted on Tamarack Learning Communities Sites:
Stanford Social Innovation Review articles on Collective Impact:
FSG Social Impact Consultants:
Collective Impact Forum:

47. Additional Resources on Collective Impact
FSG – collective impact resources -
Resources for Backbones -