Elmezzi Foundation’s Pooja O’Hanlon on Collective Impact Strategy

Recently, funders and practitioners gathered at Philanthropy New York (PNY) to discuss Collective Impact, an approach to addressing complex social problems that cannot be solved by any one person or agency. While funders and nonprofits have been aligned across programs, too many organizations work in silos to achieve their missions. Collective Impact brings people together in a structured way to achieve social change(1). This structure starts with setting a common agenda and collectively defining the vision and the problem.  Next up, agreeing on similar ways to track progress through defined shared measurements, coordinating collective efforts through mutually reinforcing activities, and establishing continuous communication and feedback mechanisms. Finally, and most importantly, the mission needs to be anchored by a backbone organization that is responsible for orchestrating and supporting the activities of the collective.

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