集合影响力 | Leping Social Entrepreneur Foundation

What is Collective Impact?

Collective Impact is the commitment of a group of important actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem at scale. They share a common ...

Why Do We Value Collective Impact?

Nonprofit organizations around the world are exploring ways to tackle challenging social issues. Most organizations focus on methods that utilize their own strengths and expertise ...

What Are the Characteristics ofCollective Impact?

1) Connecting stakeholders with a top-down and bottom-up approach;
2) Multiple perspectives yield the best practice;
3) Establishing cross-sector cooperation by assembling specific elements.

1 Connecting stakeholders with a top-down and bottom-up approach

Collective Impact often brings government and private-sector organizations together. For example, the Shape Up Somerville program is a citywide effort aiming at reducing and preventing childhood obesity in elementary school children. It was lead by Tufts University and the Somerville municipal government—a top-down approach that gradually engaged local restaurants, schools, city parks, and urban designers in a collective effort. Simultaneously, a bottom-up strategy was employed, as experts from the university trained clinicians and school nurses to make students more aware of the importance of diet and exercise. Program implementers all agree to the ultimate goal of the pilot program, and they provide valuable feedback to the university and the government to help determine program effectiveness.

2 Multiple perspectives yield the best practice

Individuals and organizations, such as non-profits, governments, academics, social groups and local residents, inevitably have different perspectives on the same social issue. Recognizing that each approach has merit, Collective Impact carefully analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of each and then builds consensus to create a collaborative, cross-sector program that will yield the best practice.

3 Establishing cross-sector cooperation by assembling specific elements

Cross-sector cooperation is hardly a new concept. There are countless strategic partnerships, service networks, and other forms of collaboration in the public and private sectors. What sets Collective Impact apart are the following five conditions:[ https://ssir.org/articles/entry/collective_impact John Kania & Mark Kramer]

(1) Common Agenda: Collective impact requires all participants to have a shared vision for change, one that includes a common understanding of the problem and a joint approach to solving it through agreed upon actions.

(2) Shared Measurement Systems: Collecting data and measuring results consistently on a short list of indicators at the community level and across all participating organizations not only ensures that all efforts remain aligned, it also enables the participants to hold each other accountable and learn from each other’s successes and failures.

(3) Mutual Reinforcing Activities: Collective impact initiatives depend on a diverse group of stakeholders working together, not by requiring that all participants do the same thing, but by encouraging each participant to undertake the specific set of activities at which it excels in a way that supports and is coordinated with the actions of others.

(4) Continuous Communication: Developing trust among nonprofits, corporations, and government agencies is a monumental challenge. Participants need several years of regular meetings to build up enough experience with each other to recognize and appreciate the common motivation behind their different efforts. They need time to see that decisions will be made on the basis of objective evidence and the best possible solution to the problem, not to favor the priorities of one organization over another. Even the process of creating a common vocabulary takes time, and it is an essential prerequisite to developing shared measurement systems.

(5) Backbone Support Organizations: The backbone organization requires a dedicated staff separate from the participating organizations who can plan, manage, and support the initiative through ongoing facilitation, technology and communications support, data collection and reporting, and handling the myriad logistical and administrative details needed for the initiative to function smoothly.

Our Practice in Pre-School Education

A 2010 census report revealed that there are over 60 million three-to six-year-old children living in China. Of these, roughly 34 million reside in rural areas. For the past five years, Leping has been attempting to improve the quality of pre-school education ...

A 2010 census report revealed that there are over 60 million three-to six-year-old children living in China. Of these, roughly 34 million reside in rural areas. For the past five years, Leping has been attempting to improve the quality of pre-school education in rural China by providing teachers with easy-to-use teaching resources and professional development trainings. Our efforts have benefited over 220,000 young students, a significant achievement, yet less than one percent of the total population in rural pre-schools.

Clearly, improving the quality of pre-school education for tens of millions of children is an effort that requires more than the isolated impact of a single organization. In order to achieve a large-scale change, it is imperative that a number of groups be involved in the effort, each bringing its unique strengths and expertise. This is the nature of Collective Impact.

In April 2016, Leping launched the Rural Early Childhood Education Collective Impact Initiative (RECE), a joint effort with the Macau Tongchai Charity Association. We set up a local taskforce and research teams, and have established relationships with local education bureaus, pre-school educators, business groups and social enterprises. Over the past twelve months, an action plan was formalized under the five essential conditions of Collective Impact:

(1) Common Agenda
By 2020, our efforts will benefit more than 10 million rural children between three- to six-year-old, enhancing their education in the areas of health, language, society, science and art.

(2) Shared Measurement Systems
The project currently involves a group of preschool education experts from Peking University, Beijing Normal University and National Institute of Education Science. Additional scholars will be invited to participate in the formulation of an evaluation system that best measures the impact of our efforts. The evaluation team will be formed in 2017 and baseline research for the pilot region will commence after the evaluation plans are finalized.

(3) Mutually Reinforcing Activities
The project team agreed that improving the quality of pre-school education in rural areas necessitates the following three objectives: enhancing teachers’ professional skills; providing appropriate teaching resources; and improving the diets of students with regard to nutrition and hygiene.

(4) Continuous Communication
In 2016, we held three seminars, a China-US-Indian forum, and a study tour to the US. Participants were encouraged to share information and exchange ideas to further learning the methodology of Collective Impact. Additionally, sustainable communications channels have been established.

(5) Backbone Support Organizations
In April 2016, core staff members from Macau Tongchai Charity Association and Leping Social Entrepreneur Foundation made joint effort to form the backbone team. Since then, the team members have been studying the methodology of Collective Impact and trying to make it localized to the Chinese context. As the RECE was launched officially in 2016, a preliminary working mechanism has been established. More important moves or adjustments will be made along the way.

A thousand miles begin with a single step. To improve the quality of early childhood education in rural China, we will continue to expand the scope of our project by attracting more partners to work in a coordinated effort.