26TEN / Build Your Community / Tool 11: A model for social change

Tool 11: A model for social change

This tool might help you with Step 2: Create a plan of action with your community

Collective Impact is a way of achieving social change that is gaining interest around the world as a result of recent research and validation. It involves using a systematic approach that brings people from different sectors together to work jointly on an entrenched problem. If you would like to consider this approach, a brief summary follows, along with links to further information.

Preconditions for success



To create the opportunity and motivation to bring together people who haven’t worked with each other before – and then hold them in place until the initiative’s own momentum takes over – you need:

  1. An influential champion (or small group of champions)

    Someone, or a few people, who are passionate about solving the problem. Rather than them promoting a particular point of view, they need to be willing to let all the people who need to be involved work out answers for themselves. Ideally it needs to be someone who commands the respect necessary to bring together leaders at CEO level from different sectors, and to keep their active engagement over time.

  2. Adequate financial resources

    For at least two or three years, there needs to be at least one funder who is engaged from the beginning and can support and mobilise other resources to pay for the needed infrastructure and planning processes.

  3. A sense of urgency for change

    Has a crisis created a breaking point that will convince people that an entirely new approach is needed? Is there potential for substantial funding that might entice people to work together? Is there a fundamentally new approach that can make a big difference? Is there research that highlights the severity of the problem and persuades people to come together?

Conditions for collective success



The following five conditions are what make the difference between a series of isolated activities and a truly collaborative approach.

  1. A common agenda
    • A shared vision for change
    • A common understanding of the problem
    • A joint approach to solving it through agreed actions
  2. Shared measurement systems
    • Consistent data collection and measurement of results
    • Efforts remain aligned
    • Participants hold each other accountable and learn from each other’s successes and failures
  3. Mutually reinforcing activities
    • A diverse group of participants working together, but not all necessarily on the same thing
    • Efforts coordinated through a mutual action plan
  4. Continuous communication
    • Recognition that it takes time and regular meetings to understand and appreciate the common motivation behind each participant’s different efforts
    • Consistent and open communication
    • Building trust and assuring mutual objectives
  5. Backbone organisation
    • A separate organisation and people with specific skills to serve as the backbone for the initiative
    • Staff with skills to coordinate the organisations taking part and leave those participating able to spend the majority of their time on their agreed activities

Making a plan for action the Collective Impact way



There are three main phases of action. The first two can take anywhere between six months and two years. Once the initiative is established, the third phase can last a decade or more. During this time, you can expect to see encouraging signs of progress towards the long-term vision.

PHASE 1: INITIATE ACTION



What you need to do during this phase:

  1. Identify champions and form a cross-sector group
  2. Map the landscape and use data to make the case
  3. Facilitate community outreach
  4. Analyse baseline data to identify key issues and gaps

PHASE 2: ORGANISE FOR IMPACT



What you need to do during this phase:

  1. Create infrastructure – backbone organisation and processes
  2. Create a common agenda – goals and strategy
  3. Engage the community and build public will
  4. Establish shared metrics – indicators, measurement, approach

PHASE 3: SUSTAIN ACTION AND IMPACT



What you need to do during this phase:

  1. Facilitate and refine the backbone organisation and processes
  2. Support implementation – alignment to goals and strategies
  3. Continue engagement and conduct advocacy
  4. Collect, track and report progress – process to learn and improve

Further information:

http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/collective_impact

http://collectiveimpactaustralia.com/

http://thephilanthropist.ca/index.php/phil/article/view/994