By Katherine R. Cooper Here at NNSI, we hear a lot about collective impact. What is it? What role should nonprofits play in collective impact? Our researchers have been interested in this phenomenon for some time; this week, we provide an overview of what we know about collective impact – and our efforts to explore collective impact from a research standpoint. What Is Collective Impact? The concept of collective impact

By Michelle Shumate As nonprofits consider partnering with businesses in a variety of ways, including sponsorships, cause-marketing, or more integrative arrangements, two important questions emerge. First, which businesses should they partner with? Second, how many business partnerships do most nonprofits maintain and talk about? In other words, how many is too many?Shumate, Hsieh and O’Connor examine these questions in their 2016 study of 122 of the largest, most recognizable U.S. nonprofits.

View the Resource By Brint Milward, Katherine R. Cooper, Michelle Shumate Agreeing on a common agenda is one of the chief tenets of collective impact—and one of the prerequisites for moving collaboration forward. However, our experience working with collective impact initiatives and other similar networks suggests that collective impact leaders often struggle to get buy-in from various community stakeholders in the crucial early stages. Specifically, we’ve seen that insistence on

View the Resource By Sophia Fu, Michelle Shumate Nongovernmental organization (NGO) hyperlink networks are institutionalized connective public goods. They influence which actors and what aspects of social issues are made visible to the public in search engine results. To understand how contextual forces and institutional pressures influence who hyperlinks to whom online, this research examines a hyperlink network of 410 NGOs with various social missions operating across China. It suggests

View the Resource By Michelle Shumate, Yannick Atouba, Katherine R. Cooper, Andrew Pilny Interorganizational communication describes the structures, forms, and processes created by the exchange of messages and the co-creation of meaning among organizations and their stakeholders. Research in this area has its roots in the study of organizational interlocks and boundary spanners and, more recently, in the field of communication, especially when conceptualized as networks. Several theories have been

View the Resource By Michelle Shumate, Katherine R. Cooper This report summarizes what we really know about collective impact from a variety of perspectives. The information is primarily drawn from the Collective Impact Summit, convened by the Network for Nonprofit and Social Impact at Northwestern University in November 2015. The Summit brought together thought leaders from national networks that support collective impact initiatives and scholars from business, community development, communication,