By Matilda Le
Collaboration is at the heart of solving today’s most pressing social challenges – but effective collaboration doesn’t happen by accident. Here at NNSI, we are working in collaboration with researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago to better understand how social impact networks design their activities and drive lasting impact.
Social impact networks are defined as groups of organizations that come together around a shared purpose, pooling their resources to achieve goals that no single organization could accomplish alone. As part of our ongoing Activities Toolkit project, we are analyzing a range of playbooks, frameworks, and templates that guide how these networks build partnerships for collective action. We focus on three central questions:
- What activities do toolkits suggest social impact networks do?
- How do these activities differ based on network characteristics (e.g., social issue, age, types of organizations involved)?
- How do these activities differ based on toolkit creator characteristics (e.g., location of toolkit creator, government/nonprofit/technical assistance organization)
In this blog post, we highlight three toolkits to give you a sneak peek into the wealth of information we are synthesizing. In a later post, we’ll share our synthesized answers from about 70 of these toolkits.
The Partnering Toolbook
Written by Ros Tennyson and produced by The Partnering Initiative, this resource stands out as a practical and structured guide for developing effective cross-sector partnerships. Drawing from global experiences, the toolkit outlines a full partnership lifecycle – from gauging potential partners and outlining shared goals, to formalizing agreements, managing collaboration, and sustaining outcomes over time.
Most notably, The Partnering Toolbook features eight practical tools that social impact networks can directly apply to organize their activities. For example, the Partner Assessment Form provides a list of questions to help network leaders evaluate potential collaborators based on factors like reputation, resource contributions, staff experience, and organizational stability. Meanwhile, the Communications Checklist offers a variety of channels and messages for effectively sharing partnership stories with different audiences, from funders to policymakers to the general public. By adapting these tools to their specific goals and contexts, social impact networks can create cooperative processes that translate shared purpose into steady, measurable progress.
Beyond the technical practices, The Partnering Toolbook places a strong emphasis on the relational aspects of collaboration. To build a successful partnership, social network leaders should prioritize equity, transparency, and mutual benefit as guiding principles. Through initiating quality conversations and fostering a learning culture, networks can deepen their sense of shared purpose, thereby strengthening their ability to navigate both opportunities and challenges.
You can download a copy of The Partnering Toolbook here.
Community Toolbox
The Community Toolbox integrates a comprehensive framework for coalition building with real-world examples that illustrate how networks can apply these practices in diverse settings. Developed by the University of Kansas Center for Community Health and Development, this toolkit is invaluable for newly established social impact networks looking for concrete strategies to move from vision to action.
The Community Toolbox begins by outlining a 13-step plan that guides networks through the process of creating and maintaining effective coalitions, accompanied by a list of related resources for each step. These steps cover foundational activities, such as:
- Describing the community’s needs and assets
- Identifying and engaging key stakeholders
- Establishing a shared mission and leadership structure
- Designing an effective action plan.
The framework also urges social network leaders to plan for sustainability, providing suggestions for maintaining momentum and fostering renewal among member organizations as well as questions to consider when evaluating whether to recruit new members.
What makes the Community Toolbox stand out as a resource for social impact networks is its rich collection of real-world cases that illustrate how coalitions in different sectors have successfully organized collective efforts. These examples provide network leaders with lessons and best practices to tailor their approaches, allowing them to maximize their capacity for long-term impact. For instance, Community Toolbox describes how a job search initiative called AbilityLinks applied steps in the coalition-building framework to bring together 150 businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies around a shared goal of increasing employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
You can download a copy of the Community Toolbox here.
Building Networks for Systemic Impact
This guidebook, produced by The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI), offers a fresh and thoughtful perspective on how social impact networks can drive meaningful, systemic change. TACSI describes impact networks as groups designed to shift systems, not just to share information, but to revolutionize the way people connect, think, and work together. Their approach shows that when people build strong relationships across traditional boundaries, they can tackle even the toughest challenges. Moreover, the guide’s user-friendly design enhances its accessibility, using bright colors, clear layouts, and simple diagrams to make complex concepts easier to apply.
A key strength of Building Networks for Systemic Impact is its articulation of four core network practices to create ripples of systemic change:
- Togetherness: Building diverse, meaningful relationships that strengthen the network’s foundation
- In-betweenness: Creating space for uncertainty, encouraging individuals to embrace “not knowing” so that new collective insights can emerge
- Emergence: Supporting connected actions as they naturally arise, allowing the network’s direction to evolve over time
- Well-being: Fostering an environment where network members feel supported and energized to achieve their full potential
TACSI brings these ideas to life with examples like the Good Death Impact Network, a group that has made significant progress in transforming end-of-life experiences in Australia by embracing mindsets that encourage learning from failure and valuing diverse perspectives. The network unites a wide range of members – from healthcare professionals to community advocates – around a shared commitment to reimagining how society approaches death and dying.
You can download a copy of Building Networks for Systemic Impact here.
As we continue our work through the Activities Toolkit project, we are excited to uncover even more insights that can help purpose-oriented networks strengthen their foundations, respond to complex challenges, and create meaningful impact.