What Does it Take for Practitioners to Use Data to Change Behavior in Collective Impact?

Jeff Raderstrong,Janay Queen Nazaire

doi:10.18060/21742

Abstract

The use of data to track and manage progress is critical to a collective impact initiative achieving results or understanding impact. Yet, little research has been done to determine how collective impact practitioners can effectively use data. This article—including a literature review, semi-structured interviews with experts on performance management and collective impact, as well as Living Cities’ experience with over 70 collective impact initiatives—outlines five steps for practitioners to grow their initiative’s capacity to use data: Agree on the Data; Find the Data; Present the Data; Discuss and Learn from the Data; Change Behavior and Share Responsibility.

Highlights

Collective impact initiatives need to use data to inform decisions, drive direction and manage progress (Kania & Kramer, 2011)
Living Cities’ experience with over 70 collective impact initiatives has shown that embedding a data-driven feedback loop can be challenging
Within our support of collective impact initiatives, we have explicitly focused on investing and supporting the use of data to achieve large-scale community change (Living Cities, 2016)

Summary

Introduction

Collective impact initiatives need to use data to inform decisions, drive direction and manage progress (Kania & Kramer, 2011). The continuous use of data grounds the collective impact work and illuminates for partners when and how they should change their behavior to achieve results. Living Cities, a collaborative of 18 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions, approaches all of its field-level research based on the needs of grantee partners in 105 cities and metropolitan areas across the US. These efforts focus on a variety of content areas, from education and economic development to workforce development and health. A majority of time is spent with grantee partners identifying areas of needed support to achieve large-scale community change. Living Cities invests resources in identifying solutions to those challenges.

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion