Sharing Data in Collective Impact Efforts

There’s been a lot of interest recently in collective impact, for good reason; it’s an exciting approach, and it’s demonstrating a growing track record of positive results. But while collective impact partners are increasingly interested in sharing data to identify best practices, learn from mistakes, and implement changes to improve outcomes, they often don’t know how to use shared data programs effectively, or even safely.

To learn more about data sharing in collaborative efforts, we at the Network for Nonprofit and Social Impact at Northwestern University interviewed 20 individuals representing partners in the Chicago Benchmarking Collaborative (CBC), a seven-organization community of practice that uses a shared database to track outcomes for its early childhood and adult learning programs.