Collective Impact – Progress Assessment Is There a Common Agenda? _____ Do we have all of the necessary stakeholders at the table? _____ Does the group have an explicit definition of the problem in agreed-upon language to refer to? _____ Has the group agreed upon the scope of the landscape it is focusing on? (i.e., Which stakeholders need/do not need to be involved?) _____ Has the group written a vision and mission statement? _____ Does the group have agreed upon goals, and measurable targets related to those goals? Does Backbone Support Exist? _____ Has a structure for the backbone been clearly decided (e.g., existing organization, new organization, hybrid)? _____ Is there a funder willing to fund the creation of backbone infrastructure over several years? _____ Is the backbone actively supporting aligned activities through convening partners, providing technical assistance, and recruiting new partners? _____ Has the backbone organization begun to build public will with consensus and commitment through communications management, articulating the call to action, and supporting community member engagement activities? Is a Shared Measurement System in Place? _____ Is ongoing staffing assigned and funding allocated to develop and implement a shared measurement strategy? _____ Have we decided what metrics and benchmarks to use to gauge our progress? _____ Have we established processes to ensure that measurement remains aligned to hold all organizations accountable? Is this data accessible enough so that organizations can easily course-correct? _____ Have we established a web-based technology tool for bringing shared measurement to scale? _____ Is that web-based tool easily accessible to stakeholders, customizable, and inexpensive? _____ Are stakeholders sharing results and learning from each other using the tools and processes we’ve created? Have Mutually Reinforcing Activities Been Established? _____ Is there an up-to-date map of the players, strategies and work underway? _____ Is it clear who is responsible for the different strategic elements of the initiative? _____ Has overlap and redundancy between organizations been identified and minimized? _____ Have sub-groups been established by locality and type of activity? _____ Has a list of prioritized activities and next steps been written so that the different groups are coordinated around common agenda? Is There Continuous Communication? _____ Have meeting schedules been established for activity-focused sub-groups? Will these meetings occur yearly? Monthly? Weekly? _____ Have meeting schedules been established for community-focused sub-groups? Will these meetings occur yearly? Monthly? Weekly? _____ Have vertical and horizontal reporting processes been established? (i.e., How will sub-groups report out to the steering committee? How will groups report to each other?) _____ Have decision-making processes been established? Collective Impact – Readiness Assessment Use the following gauges to determine “readiness” for Collective Impact by identifying which preconditions the group is well prepared for or will need further investment in: Progress Gauges: Significant Investment Needed – The group does not currently have these elements/processes in place. There is an incomplete or unclear plan to accomplish this goal and/or significant time and resources will need to be allocated to either begin or complete this process. Some Investment Needed – While these elements/processes are not fully in place, significant thought and planning has gone into these elements. Time and resources have been allocated and clear progress is being made. Current Situation Strong – These elements/processes are either fully in place or sufficient progress has been made in them so that they are operationally functional in the context of the initiative. Download a Microsoft Word version of this assessment here.
