Widening the view: situating collective impact among frameworks for community-led change

Abstract

Collective impact is a framework for achieving systems-level changes in communities through coordinated multi-sector collaborations. It has quickly gained influence in public health, education, and community development practice. Many adherents to the collective impact framework position it as a novel approach, however, and they often neglect many of the relevant findings from previous research on coalitions, interorganizational alliances, and other forms of organizational and cross-sector collaboration. Additionally, the collective impact model differs in important ways from other effective models for community-driven changes in systems and policies, including grassroots community organizing. This article situates collective impact in relation to similar approaches, makes key distinctions between the collective impact framework and principles for grassroots community organizing, and draws on these distinctions to offer recommendations for enhancing collaborative practice to address community issues. The clarification of these distinctions provides possibilities for future innovations in community development practice, evaluation, and research. To tackle the root causes of the systemic issues that collective impact efforts seek to address will require learning from the community organizing approach to community engagement, analysis of power, and capacity for conflict.