For those in the social sector tackling wicked problems, building a network of organizations working toward the common goals is one of the best chances to make progress. Forming and maintaining such a collective impact network takes intentional plans, work, and support. Rural Support Partners developed a toolkit for groups of organizations that are in the beginning of developing – or have already formed – a network.
The toolkit includes some worksheets that an emerging network might use to get started and others to help evaluate an existing network’s work together in order to take it to the next level. The toolkit provides guidance on the questions that these groups might ask themselves. In sum, the toolkit is a set of worksheets designed to help groups build strong, effective, sustainable networks.
We tried to write this toolkit for all audiences. It includes everything we thought might be useful for starting and developing a sustainable network. The toolkit uses a “kitchen sink” approach. We have thrown everything in the mix. Not everything will be useful to every network. So as you use this toolkit, feel free to choose the worksheets that you want or need.
Download the PDF: Building a Sustainable Network: A Toolkit
This toolkit was supported by The Ford Foundation’s Wealth Creation in Rural Communities – Building Sustainable Livelihoods initiative, which was part of The Foundation’s Expanding Livelihood Opportunities for Poor Households Initiative. It accompanies an in-depth study of collective impact networks working to create wealth that sticks in rural communities.