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Community Voice

Community Voice in Times of Crisis

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“Things are not alright.”

This has been a tough couple of months. Everywhere we look, there are signs of strain in the social fabric that once linked us together as citizens, as neighbors. The idea that we are broadly aligned, that we care about one another, and that there is shared commitment to the common good feels shattered. Gains made on trust-building across difference have quickly eroded.

That unease is being reinforced daily by the chaos playing out around us – intensified immigration enforcement, recurring funding deadlines and brinkmanship in Washington, and ongoing policy disruption that makes it difficult for institutions to plan with confidence. The pace and tone of change are exhausting, even for those of us whose job it is to track it closely.

A recent report from the Center for Effective Philanthropy helps put this moment into sharper focus. Drawing on perspectives from nonprofit leaders across the country, the report describes a sector navigating sustained pressure – financial uncertainty, rising demand for services, workforce exhaustion, and an external environment that feels increasingly difficult to anticipate. Leaders shared a sense of operating without a clear horizon, and having to make consequential decisions while conditions continue to shift beneath them.

The findings point to a sector that is deeply engaged in planning, scenario modeling, and risk management. Organizations are revisiting assumptions, reassessing capacity, and preparing for long-term implications that extend beyond a single budget cycle. This level of attention reflects the seriousness of the moment and the responsibility leaders feel toward their missions, staff, and communities.

A Missing (and Needed) Perspective

At the same time, the conditions described in the report extend well beyond organizational walls. Federal policy shifts, intensified enforcement, and sharper public rhetoric shape daily life for the people nonprofits serve. Increased violence evokes safety concerns. The broader environment is present in every interaction, existing just below the surface. 

It wasn’t long ago that the pandemic reminded us of important truths. Many organizations, flush with ARPA resources, learned that strong programs and sufficient resources did not always translate into participation or connection. Engagement patterns changed, and long-standing assumptions about motivation, trust, and access no longer held. People related to institutions differently in the era of vaccine misinformation and mask mandates, shaped by fear, fatigue, and uncertainty.

That dynamic never really went away, and now it has roared back to the front burner.

As organizations focus on financial planning and operational resilience, communities are simultaneously navigating the emotional and practical impact of the national climate. They are noticing who reaches out, who listens, and who creates space for dialogue. Presence and acknowledgment carry real weight in shaping how institutions are perceived and trusted.

That fundamentally requires staying connected to the people at the heart of your mission, ensuring that community voice continues to inform decisions as this period unfolds.

Your people need to hear from you, and vice versa.

So how will you show up at this critical moment?

A Primer for Community Voice in Times of Crisis

Periods of disruption call for a different posture from institutions. When the ground feels unsteady, communities look less for certainty and more for presence, honesty, and care. Centering community voice during times of crisis is not about perfect process or polished engagement strategies. It is about getting proximate in ways that reinforce trust and shared humanity.

  • Listen first. You do not need fully formed solutions right now. Few people do. What matters most in the early stages of disruption is the act of listening itself. Creating intentional space for people to share how they are experiencing this moment – what they are worried about, what they are feeling, what they need – signals respect and partnership.

    Listening strengthens relational bonds at a time when many feel disconnected from institutions. It also helps organizations avoid making assumptions based on outdated conditions. What you hear may challenge internal narratives, but it will better equip you to respond with relevance and care as decisions come into focus.

  • Anchor in what remains true. There will be time to communicate what is changing – program adjustments, scaled-back services, delayed timelines, or difficult tradeoffs. In moments of uncertainty, however, people are often more grounded by what is steady than by what is new.

    Reaffirm your values, naming your commitment to the people you serve. Be clear about why your mission still matters and how your belief in community dignity and worth has not wavered. Continuity of purpose provides reassurance when external conditions feel volatile, and it reinforces the emotional contract between organizations and the communities that trust them.
  • Work together. Designing with communities has long been recognized as a best practice. In times of strain, it becomes a necessity. Decisions about cuts, consolidations, or shifts in strategy land differently when people understand the constraints and have a voice in shaping the response.

    Partnership does not mean consensus on every decision, but it does mean transparency, shared problem-solving, and an acknowledgment that those closest to the impact often hold insights institutions cannot see on their own. Collaboration in difficult moments builds credibility and reduces the sense that change is being imposed rather than navigated together.
  • Dialogue often. Extended uncertainty can make organizations hesitant to communicate. The instinct to wait until everything is known and the message feels complete is understandable. Yet silence creates its own narrative, often one filled with anxiety or misinformation.

    Communicate what you can. Be honest about what is still unclear. Share updates even when they are partial. Invite questions and feedback, and be prepared to listen again. Regular, human communication reinforces trust and reminds people that they are not facing uncertainty alone.

How We Show Up 

Periods like this test institutions. They also reveal what kind of partners we choose to be to the communities we serve. Community voice is more important when conditions are in flux. Listening, communicating, and co-creating in moments of strain helps organizations remain grounded, relevant, and trusted.

Things are not alright. That makes how we show up – and who we choose to listen to – more important than ever.

Reclaiming Advocacy: A Nonprofit’s Guide to Impactful Community Action

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In today’s polarized climate, “advocacy” sometimes gets a bad rap. As a result, some nonprofits and community-based organizations shy away from engaging in such efforts. 

But advocacy is so much more than just outspoken public support for a particular cause or policy.

For nonprofits and community-based organizations, advocacy represents a powerful opportunity to:

  • Present a case for support of the organization’s mission through storytelling, comparative analysis, and trend research
  • Build and cultivate relationships with community partners
  • Publicize what your organization hopes to achieve by outlining funding support, resources, and defined next steps

To be a nonprofit leader is to be an advocate. But leading a movement requires organizations to drive systemic change—which is no small task. At Next Stage, we feel nonprofits and mission-driven organizations are uniquely positioned to fuel effective and sustainable efforts to achieve that needed change. They just need to know where to start.

Pushing Past Discomfort

Many nonprofits have established, comfortable methods for promoting their mission, vision, programs, and services. These traditional approaches often include educating the public about their work, raising awareness of their cause, or engaging donors and volunteers to help build organizational capacity or assist with branding efforts.

While these methods are a form of advocacy and help people understand the organization’s scope, there’s a more intensive approach that requires “thinking outside the box” and embracing discomfort. This deeper level of advocacy may involve:

  • Meeting with local government officials (e.g., city council members or county commissioners)
  • Writing public letters to make initiatives part of public record
  • Organizing protests to draw attention to the cause

These assertive tactics can be uncomfortable but may be necessary to effectively and thoroughly address the nonprofit’s cause and help drive meaningful change.

Building Your Advocacy Blueprint

In a recent Next Stage client engagement, we asked the following questions regarding advocacy efforts to help spark this kind of “out of the box” thinking:

  • What ways can your organization share information beyond standard communication methods like social media and email?
  • What decision-makers could support your initiative (e.g., elected officials, community partners, etc.)?

Wondering where your organization should begin? Here are some key action steps to consider:

  • Amplify community voices. Speak up for individuals who are overlooked. Share stories about your personal journey and invite others to share theirs. This kind of storytelling is not only validating but also enlightening.
  • Adopt an asset-based lens. Educate yourself on how to best communicate the challenges of the people your nonprofit faces by recognizing what resources are already in place. What “neighborhood PhDs” exist that you can connect with? Where are key community locations you can leverage to connect with and poll constituents to gain their input? What do you already know about the most pressing issues facing your community? How can you use that knowledge to design open-ended questions that invite room for additional concerns to be surfaced and addressed?
  • Establish an action plan and determine goals. What do you want to achieve and how do those goals align with your organization’s values? This allows for accountability in staying the course on specific objectives. Plus, it enables you to share your visionary advocacy plan with others to gain their approval and support.
  • Find allies—and opposition. Identify people who share your mindset around challenging the status quo but be willing to also discuss your goals with people who may not necessarily agree with your line of thinking to gain a holistic perspective. Having conversations across the aisle proves that you don’t necessarily have to fully agree to achieve change in a positive direction.

Embracing Your Advocacy Mission

One of the primary goals of advocacy is to bridge the gap and provide an equitable framework between constituents and decision-makers while advancing policy change and collective impact on the local, regional, and federal level. The stakes are high—especially for the children, families, and individuals your organization serves. It’s also important to recognize that advocacy can be a slow and lonely process. It requires patience to achieve sustainable and life-changing outcomes, but it’s worth it.

So don’t shift the responsibility thinking it’s another organization’s job to do the critical work of advocacy. Nope, it’s your job. But you don’t have to do it alone!

Review your approach. Push through the discomfort. And lead the charge in your unique way.

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Looking for support on how your organization can get involved in advocacy efforts?

Join us for our next FREE webinar in our Community Voice series: Advocacy & Community Voice: Building a Movement of People.

We’ll examine:

  • How to integrate advocacy efforts into your nonprofit
  • Why using community insights can drive change
  • Strategies for building a movement of people

This free webinar will run September 19 at 11:00 am ET. Register here!

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Next Stage Senior Director of Community Voice Helen Hope Kimbrough centers the perspective and lived experience of others to inform meaningful strategic planning and implementation efforts. Helen also champions diversity, equity, and inclusion for societal and organizational change. She serves on the board of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation and Parent Child+ and is the author of four multicultural children’s books. She’s the founder of an independent publishing company and cohost of the Behind The Throne podcast. A graduate of Hampton University, Helen holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing. She also has certifications in “Systems Thinking” and “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace” from Cornell University and the University of South Florida, respectively.

The Hidden Treasure in Your Nonprofit: Why Frontline Voices Matter

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Did you know there’s a wealth of untapped wisdom within your nonprofit? It’s your staff and team members — especially those most proximate to the work. Their perspective can offer meaningful insights to amplify your organization’s mission. 

But boots-on-the-ground staff, the ones carrying out the mission daily, are often forgotten when an organization’s leadership comes together to refine its programming or engage in strategic planning. They’re often seen simply as the “doers” of the work — the ones who will implement the plans, designed by leadership, that will keep the organization structurally sound and afloat. But when directives come from the top, with a big-boss mindset, organizations lose out on a lot of value.

Without a way to bridge communications between frontline employees and management, nonprofits risk overlooking key insights that would strengthen their organizations’ effectiveness.

Tapping into Frontline Wisdom

When was the last time you invited your frontline employees to the planning table? And not just for a checklist or progress report, but a true engagement of ideas? When was the last time they were truly listened to, with the chance for their ideas to become a part of the organization’s broader plan?

Nonprofit employees actively seek this level of respect and internal goodwill. Your staff wants to contribute to your organization’s mission — and leveraging their wisdom can strengthen your nonprofit’s longevity and effectiveness.

That’s why we published Inside-Out: The Case for Community Voice, to reframe how organizations collect and consider input. For some nonprofit leaders, this requires a mindset shift — a traditional approach would see organizations gathering knowledge and insights at the top, allowing those to then trickle down into their agency’s programs, services and resources. For others, the desire to include and amplify their staff’s voices is there, but they find themselves falling short in executing an effective internal communications process. So, they default to the standard (and comfortable) top-down approach.

But a nonprofit’s internal feedback loop (or lack thereof) plays a key role in organizational strength because it directly relates to an organization’s values and guiding principles.

Building a Stronger Organization from Within

At Next Stage, we use an equation: Values + Processes = Internal Culture & External Brand. We believe living out your values while adhering to a set of protocols and processes is what defines both your workplace culture and public perception. A lack of clearly expressed, well-defined values negatively impacts trust and belonging internally, which then limits outbound engagement for your brand.

I’ve witnessed this misstep firsthand. A client mandated a set of changes to his staff, hoping it would get his team in alignment with his plans. But all this achieved was an increase in employee dissatisfaction and a breakdown in his staff’s trust in the organization’s leadership. As a result, many employees left, and those who remained didn’t feel connected to the company’s culture, mission or values.

For this particular client engagement, I began with a discovery phase. Although standard practice might dictate that a discovery phase should begin with mid-management and executive-level stakeholders, I talked first with the organization’s frontline employees. It might be logical to assume that executives know the most about their organization’s programming, marketing and operations, but I’ve found that’s often not the case. Additional voices must be included to get the whole picture to best support an institution’s strategy, direction, and vision. When you allow frontline workers to relay ideas and share their experiences, it only ever serves to better your organization. Also, starting discovery at the top can allow bias to creep in, so using this nontraditional approach can help mitigate this risk and allow for more robust, productive discussions.

Aligning Values, Culture and Brand

So how do you best listen to the people you entrust with advancing your nonprofit’s mission? How can you use their wisdom and experience to inform your institution’s future direction? Start with the following:

  • Empower your employees to use their voices.
  • Create a safe space for conversation, ideation and belonging.
  • Listen intently. In other words… stop talking so much!

To learn more on this topic, we invite you to join our free webinar, Human Resources & Community Voice: Listening to Your Employees, on August 29 at 11:00 a.m. ET. We’ll explore:

  • Why listening to employees is crucial for effective HR
  • The value of frontline insights and storytelling
  • How to implement a feedback process to foster a positive workplace culture

See you there!

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Next Stage Senior Director of Community Voice Helen Hope Kimbrough centers the perspective and lived experience of others to inform meaningful strategic planning and implementation efforts. Helen also champions diversity, equity and inclusion for societal and organizational change. She serves on the board of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation and Parent Child+ and is the author of four multicultural children’s books. She’s the founder of an independent publishing company and cohost of the Behind The Throne podcast. A graduate of Hampton University, Helen holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing. She also has certifications in “Systems Thinking” and “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace” from Cornell University and the University of South Florida, respectively.

Who is the “Hero” of Your Nonprofit’s Story?

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Your organization is doing important work to advance positive outcomes for the people you serve. You have a differentiated approach that makes your nonprofit uniquely qualified, and those who know your work best are true believers.

So why is it so difficult to get others to see what you, your staff and current volunteers see? Why does it feel like you’re continually fighting uphill to attract the constituency you need to make a bigger impact?

It likely has nothing to do with your competition or a need to demonstrate additional effort.

In fact, it likely isn’t about you at all…

Defining Movement-Building Brand Marketing

We know focusing on recruitment (when you’d prefer to focus on advancing your programming) is frustrating.

But we have a solution.

We’ve developed a strategy, informed by our work with 200+ social good institutions, called “movement-building brand marketing.” An adaptation of Donald Miller’s Storybrand, our approach focuses on the unique ways nonprofits can build belonging with their constituents.

The premise is simple — brands do best when they position the person they’re communicating with as the “hero” in their messaging. Why?

Because when people see themselves in your narrative, they’re more likely to engage with your brand.

However, we’ve seen that this communication strategy is counter to how nonprofits and other social good institutions typically present themselves. Organizations often place themselves as the hero of the story they’re telling — with their approach, their programming and their staff positioned front and center. While that may seem logical, it’s far less effective than the alternative and does little to foster the “belonging” necessary to achieve constituent buy-in.

Reframing the Narrative

Social good leaders often grasp this concept quickly but often struggle to apply it in their communication efforts. Here are some indicators your organization should consider reframing its narrative:

  • Your communications focus on the institution rather than the audience. One of my favorite social-good thought leaders Penelope Burke suggests counting the number of times your messages use the word you instead of we or us. It’s a great way to build a metric around shifting to human-centered communication. Your audience wants to connect with your messaging, so speaking directly to them is a simple way to accomplish this. (Check out the opening paragraphs of this blog for an example of how to “make it about them.”)
  • Your organization outlines funding as a need — with the stakes being your nonprofit’s survival. Fundraising is always tricky. It requires a deeply nuanced approach to build human-centered narratives that motivate people to give. But we’d argue there’s no more nonprofit-centric narrative than this: If we don’t exist, people suffer. Making the nonprofit the “hero” and challenging people to donate to support your work is a classic misstep (and one that raises far fewer dollars than one that positions the donor as the change agent).
  • Your organization continually reiterates the story of how the nonprofit came to be. This is one of the hardest tropes to disrupt because the founder-centric story is often a powerful strategy for awareness-building in an organization’s early days. But over time, constituents become less interested in a nonprofit’s past and instead want to see how they can be a part of its future. This will require your organization to reposition the spotlight onto each new person who discovers your organization. To do so, share messaging that elevates the constituent as an important part of how your nonprofit can advance its mission. It takes a great degree of humility to move on from an oft-told founding story, but it so often holds the key to future growth.

Using Community Voice in Your Market Research

Determining what “you-centric” messages will resonate with the people you aim to reach can be best determined with community voice research. Why guess when you can directly ask representatives of the people you want to attract?

We shared methods for conducting such market research earlier this year as part of our free Community Voice webinar series. We believe community voice is essential to a strong movement-building brand marketing strategy because it creates a strong sense of shared values and belonging with your constituents.

Catch the encore of our free Marketing & Community Voice webinar this Thursday at 11 am.

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Interested in elevating your organization’s messaging to connect with new audiences?

Reach out and let’s set up a time to chat.

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Next Stage CEO Josh Jacobson launched Next Stage as a social enterprise in 2014, bridging his professional experiences as a nonprofit practitioner with his consulting expertise. He has led Next Stage’s work with 200+ clients, including nonprofits, private-sector companies, municipalities, faith institutions, philanthropies and community-based organizations. Josh’s skills in strategic positioning and tactical design help clients achieve their goals. He guides Next Stage’s work in strategic planning and collaboration management and is a major contributor to the company’s thought leadership efforts.

Navigating the New Realities of Corporate Social Responsibility

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On August 22, I will present a session at the AFP NC Philanthropy Conference on one of my favorite topics: corporate social responsibility. The session will continue a decade-long series of talks I’ve given at this annual conference.

Our company has done a significant amount of research on this topic, which informed the launch of our corporate impact services line. Now, Next Stage works with multiple private-sector companies to realize compelling public-private partnerships. It’s some of the most innovative and game-changing work our company has done.

Helping nonprofit organizations understand what has changed about corporate social responsibility requires near-constant updating because so much has changed — and continues to change — so quickly, which is why we’ve found it important to share our latest findings regularly.

Alignment to Materiality

As we previously shared in our 2023 report, Profit & Purpose: The ESG Addendum, the speed with which corporate social responsibility has been evolving has accelerated in recent years. A more sophisticated methodology for social impact efforts has replaced the shotgun approach of previous decades. “Spreading it around” has given way to something more strategic. 

That approach is part of what I’ll unpack in greater depth at the conference next month. Companies are focusing their impact efforts on areas of greater alignment to their work, often to mitigate unintended negative consequences of their operations. This concept, for companies to choose social issues aligned to their business processes, is called materiality. For example, a residential home builder is likely to focus on social impact efforts related to affordable housing, while a lending institution may work to create more racially equitable access to capital. 

If you’re curious about what a company considers its materiality, take a look at its ESG report. Delta Airlines’ report, for example, suggests that climate change is an area of particular focus — not surprising given that the aviation industry is responsible for 2–3% of total carbon emissions annually. A deeper dive into the report reveals that education and equity are also key areas of focus, with the need for a future STEM-based workforce critical to the company’s future success. 

Metric-Based Goal-Setting

One way the private sector and nonprofits have come closer together in recent years is how they are evaluated. Like the nonprofits they have granted funding to for years, companies are now compiling their impact data and making it available to third-party reviewers for assessment. Why? Because future backing from socially conscious investors hinges on how those outcomes stack up against others in their industry. 

The Lowe’s Foundation Gable Grant program is a $50 million, 5-year program to train 50,000 job-ready skilled tradespeople. Beyond the stated financial commitment and multiyear design, the effort is also carving out a specific and measurable goal of 50,000 people served. The grantmaking strategy includes investing in national-level nonprofits, technical and community colleges, and community-based organizations nationwide, recognizing the importance of working at macro and micro levels to affect change. It’s an advanced approach to grantmaking that was not very common in the past. (Disclosure: Next Stage is helping the Lowe’s Foundation to implement this innovative initiative).

Commitment to Research

The history of corporate social responsibility is one without much grounding in research. Companies often decided to support issue areas based on internal decision-making, and organizations were selected as much on their social capital (e.g., board connections to corporate executives) as on the merits of their programming. That framework has largely disappeared, with far more evidence-based approaches to grantmaking becoming more of the norm. 

The PNC Foundation was ahead of the curve when it launched its Grow Up Great initiative — an effort to prepare children from birth through age 5 for success in school and life — in 2004. As the PNC Foundation celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, it’s positioning its grantmaking against the backdrop of research that indicates an area where its impact can be particularly effective. PNC-funded research, in partnership with the National Institute for Early Education Research, is helping to reframe the need for more nature-based play and learning environments.

Leveraging Grantee Connectivity

One area where Next Stage has been pioneering new social impact efforts is in the development of digital communities of practice for corporate foundations seeking to better harness their portfolios of investees. Companies have changed how they treat the nonprofits and agencies they support, from seeing them as charitable investments to vendors of corporate-aligned social impact. As such, realizing stronger outcomes collectively is a top priority.

Next Stage has developed an approach to building social cohesion among grantee organizations that increases the potential for collaboration. Working together, grantees convened by a single corporate grantmaker may be able to realize more impact than when working in isolation. 

Next Stage uses a digital collaboration management platform called Cultivate Impact ® to unite grantee organizations, often through the lens of professional development and organizational strengthening. We have built a curriculum to support grantee learning communities that leads to stronger relationships, deeper trust and increased impact.

Want to learn more? Feel free to get in touch! We’d welcome the opportunity to discuss our approach further.

A Passionate Defense of Collective Impact

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Next Stage is a social innovation company, so of course we are big fans of Stanford Social Innovation Review (ssir.org), which serves as a clearinghouse of social change efforts. We greatly recommend signing up for the free weekly newsletter, and if you are so inclined, get a subscription. There is no more thoughtful resource out there thinking ahead (and around the corner) on trying to solve the most challenging of social causes.

It got on my radar fairly early in my consulting career as the result of a groundbreaking article in 2011 on the concept of collective impact, “the commitment of a group of important actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem.” It was a concept that really spoke to me.

Almost from the beginning of my social good journey, I have been drawn to the concept of collaboration. You only have to do this work for a short time to realize that most institutions function in silos of their own making. And yet, that is not how the world works. The people an organization aims to serve are complex and are surrounded by a number of influences and inputs. It always seemed to me that the solutions offered to create positive social outcomes should be similarly nuanced and overlapping.

Finding collective impact was like discovering the answer to a question that hadn’t yet been asked. I was immediately intrigued. 

Bumps Along the Road

Depending on who you ask, you will get varied feedback on the effectiveness of the collective impact model. Some, like myself, really believe in it as a model – what is on paper is logical and a big improvement over anything that came before it. But for those who have actually tried to implement it as a strategy, reviews are mixed.

Typical criticisms include the lack of funding to sustain the model, the difficulty in sustaining partner buy-in, the challenge of turnover in leadership, and the longitudinal nature of outcomes in a world that rewards near-term successes. They are all fair criticisms. Any collaborative effort is going to face similar challenges. 

While there are still devotees out there, we have witnessed a fair amount of abandoning the framework altogether when we have no real viable alternatives. We believe it is primarily a challenge of implementation. The model itself is a badly needed, metric-driven framework that can work if the right conditions are in place. 

Collective Impact Improved

Next Stage reframed its mission at the beginning of the year to focus on “building belonging at the intersection of social good.” We believe that the only way forward is together. To make the collective impact model work more effectively, we’d offer the following improvements:

Service Providers as Backbone Organizations – In another recent blog, we outline the idea of service providers as advocacy organizations, and that concept holds true here as well. Too often, collective impact is embedded in organizations designed for the expressed purpose of advancing collective impact. These “catalyst, conduit and convener” organizations are meant to be a clearinghouse for collaboration, where the mission is the collective impact effort itself.

The problem with that is one of trust. These are often organizations launched by funding sources, with new entrants to the community recruited as staff who lack local credibility to lead the efforts they are tasked with advancing. They are also disconnected with the frontlines of social good where the important learnings live (if this intrigues you, check out our webinar series on community voice).

We think a better model is to embed collaboration management within a service-providing organization. Funders would be shocked, thinking that this somehow distracts an organization from its core mission, but we disagree. Who better to lead a collaborative effort than an organization that is already trusted by other service providers and the people the collaborative aims to impact in the first place. Yes, nonprofits can chew bubble gum and walk at the same time. It just takes investment and professional development to accomplish, but is far more likely to be successful than inventing a new agency out of thin air.

Start (and Continue) with Social Cohesion – We truly love the primary tools of collective impact efforts – a common agenda, shared measurement systems, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication and, yes, backbone organizations. But we think there is a big missing piece – the building of trust.

Most collective impact efforts fall down not because of the lack of infrastructure (that’s in fact what we think the model does exceptionally well), but because of lack of buy-in by the important partners. Our company has been brought into collective impact efforts half-way through completion that have hit a wall, and that barrier is almost always a breakdown in buy-in.

One reason for this is that these efforts spend too little time building social cohesion with participating leaders. Much more than an ice-breaker at the start of each meeting, social cohesion is built over time and must be nurtured throughout. If we think of trust as a form of capital (trust capital), then we can measure it and use it as a metric alongside the other important measurements guiding collective impact. We think this is an area where new tools are needed that can support these aims. 

Invite the Broader Community – Another feature we think is underutilized in collective impact efforts is the use of large stakeholder groups. Continuous communication is one of the critical pillars of the model, but it is most often viewed as an insular effort. Engaging a larger audience creates opportunities for data capture that provide important insights and learnings for the collaborative effort.

So often, the branded collective impact effort is only known among insiders within a community’s social good sector. We think this is a missed opportunity. If we truly believe in community voice and “no decisions about us, without us” then including not only community based organizations but also the people a collaborative aims to serve is the only way to accomplish this. 

The building and sustaining of a large stakeholder group can serve as a needed, always-on focus group for the immediate testing of ideas surfaced by the collective impact effort. But to make that work, the community must understand the aims of the collective impact effort and feel truly a part of its success. 

Next Stage’s Cultivate Impact®

Next Stage has launched a digital collaboration management and community of practice platform called Cultivate Impact. Powered by our methodologies of social cohesion-building, the platform can serve collective impact efforts in realizing continuous communication aims that yield increased buy-in and trust.

In 2024, we are piloting the platform with a number of partners including grantmakers, collective impact initiatives and learning communities. If you’d like to learn more, get in touch.