Article by Soren Kaplan: “…Nonprofits face growing pressure to do more with less: Rising demand, shrinking funding, and increasingly complex social issues often exceed the capacity—and mission—of any single organization. At the same time, because today’s most urgent challenges are interconnected and systemic, effectively addressing hunger, homelessness, education, or health equity requires a level of strategic coordination that few organizations can achieve on their own.
Most nonprofits operate in isolation from each other, for reasons that are easy to understand. Structural incentives such as funding models, branding, and board expectations often reinforce competition over collaboration. As a result, even when their missions overlap, organizations frequently compete for limited funding, volunteers, and visibility, duplicating services in some areas and while leaving needs unmet in others.
Five organizations in Contra Costa County, California, have been developing a new model to align their efforts focused on food insecurity without sacrificing their autonomy as distinct organizations. I would suggest that the example of The Food Security Collaborative offers a replicable blueprint that other social sector leaders can adapt to their local contexts, a model for how—rather than working in isolation—nonprofits can connect their missions, integrate data, share resources, and coordinate services to amplify impact across a shared system.
I call this model an “Impact Collaborative.”..(More)”.
