While most organizations recognize that Collective Impact is invaluable in it’s ability to bring people together, encourage the sharing of resources and achieve wider results; however this approach fails to properly address the underlying fears and grant expectations that are placed on grantees. We know that in order to achieve a wide spread and real impact it will take collaboration with other partners and organizations, yet the underlying problem of how to remain competitive to win funding and show results has not yet been addressed.
Are these issues you have faced while trying to achieve Collective Impact? Below is an excerpt of the article Bill Barberg, President of InsightFormation, wrote for the Grant Managers Network blog.
We would encourage you to read the full article HERE
““Some would say that if there is true Collective Impact, then no organization can claim the credit or take the blame for the results. Since most current funding models are based on demonstrating who gets credit, how can funders make rational decisions and hold grantees accountable in the world of Collective Impact? Should funders just give money to anyone who claims to take credit for some good outcome? Will we need mountains of data and super-computers crunching the statistics to try to assign credit?
Recognizing contributions in collective efforts may be a new and daunting challenge in the social sector, but it has been successfully addressed in other sectors. Individuals in all roles in the social sector—funders, evaluators, service providers, and researchers—can learn from how others have addressed these challenges. This article looks at two examples—large corporations and sports teams—to identify some practical lessons.””