Collective Impact: SOLVING THE “UNSOLVABLE”

How did the Tacoma School District increase its graduation rate from 55% to 78% in only 3 years?

How did Chicago find unsubsidized employment for almost 6,000 residents of its troubled public housing?

How did Franklin Co. reduce alcohol use among youth by 37%, binge drinking by 50%, cigarette smoking by 45% and marijuana use by 31% - in only 8 years?

What is Collective Impact? Collective Impact occurs when organizations from different sectors agree to solve a specific social problem using a common agenda, aligning their efforts, and using common measures of success.

Origins  Stanford Social Innovation Review article (2011)  FSG Consulting Firm develops “Collective Impact Forum”  Funders increasingly recognizing value of this approach  Results are real, when projects are done right

“The appeal of collective impact may be due to a broad disillusionment in the ability of governments to solve society’s problems, causing people to look at alternative models of change.” - Fay Hanleybrown, Jay Kania, and Mark Kramer, Stanford Social Innovation Review

Collective vs. Isolated Impact Isolated: Finding and funding a solution embodied within a single organization ◦“When a grantee is asked to evaluate the impact of its work, every attempt is made to isolate that grantee’s individual influence from all other variables.” ◦“…nearly 1.4 M nonprofits try to invent individual solutions to major social problems, often working at odds with each other and exponentially increasing the perceived resources required to make meaningful progress.” Collective: Social problems arise from the interplay of government and commercial activities, not only from the behavior of social sector organizations…. Doesn’t it make sense to include them in the solution?

Five Conditions of Collective Impact 1.Common Agenda 2.Shared Measurement 3.Mutually reinforcing Activities 4.Continuous Communication 5.Backbone Support  Shared vision - WHAT  Plan - HOW  WHO does what WELL  Builds trust, common language  Dedicated management

Preconditions for Collective Impact 1.An Influential Champion 2.Adequate Financial Resources 3.Urgency for Change

We believe this can happen in NCW! October workshop designed to help efforts already in progress or those just forming. We will collect “Letters of Intent” to ensure that groups are prepared to get the most out of the workshop. CFNCW will award most promising Collective Impact initiative with funding to enlist help of a C. I. expert/advisor for one year.

Collective impact KEY CONCEPTS

Technical v. Adaptive Problems Shared Value Networks

Technical vs. Adaptive Problems

What’s the approach?Who does the work? Technical Apply current know-howAuthorities Adaptive Learn new waysThe people with the problem What’s the difference?

Which one is the technical problem?

"We were trying to find out what we could do and what we could not"

"He is about performing that airplane to the exact precision to which it is made."

What does this mean for how we work... to solve problems?

How we normally do work

.... and how it turns out

Who performed well

... and why

Shared Value

What is Shared Value? Shared value is created when organizations view social problems as opportunities to innovate and grow Shared value is created when organizations treat social problems as business objectives

Shared Value Opportunity in Education

Shared Value Opportunity in Health Eighty percent of “health” is determined by physical environment, personal behaviors and socio-economic factors.

What gets in the way (of shared value)?

Networks

3 Types of Networks InformationAlignmentProduction

Attributes of a production network Generat es Goods & Services Innovate s new solutions Spreads Ideas & Practices Advocat es for policies Mobilize s Support Builds Capacity Shared Value Proposition

Emerging Networks

When? Why? How?

Final Thoughts You can do this!

For more information Adaptive Problems Build a tower, build a Team – TED talk Technical v. Adaptive Networks Net Gains Shared Value FSG’s Shared Value Initiative