Connecting to Change the World: Harnessing the Power of Networks for Social Impact

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Island Press, Sep 29, 2014 - Business & Economics - 240 pages
Something new and important is afoot. Nonprofit and philanthropic organizations are under increasing pressure to do more and to do better to increase and improve productivity with fewer resources. Social entrepreneurs, community-minded leaders, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropists now recognize that to achieve greater impact they must adopt a network-centric approach to solving difficult problems. Building networks of like-minded organizations and people offers them a way to weave together and create strong alliances that get better leverage, performance, and results than any single organization is able to do.

While the advantages of such networks are clear, there are few resources that offer easily understandable, field-tested information on how to form and manage social-impact networks. Drawn from the authors’ deep experience with more than thirty successful network projects, Connecting to Change the World provides the frameworks, practical advice, case studies, and expert knowledge needed to build better performing networks. Readers will gain greater confidence and ability to anticipate challenges and opportunities.

Easily understandable and full of actionable advice, Connecting to Change the World is an informative guide to creating collaborative solutions to tackle the most difficult challenges society faces.

About the author (2014)

Peter Plastrik is cofounder and Vice-President, Innovation Network for Communities (INC), a nonprofit national network of community system innovators. A prolific author, Peter wrote Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies for Reinventing Government and The Reinventor’s Fieldbook: Tools for Transforming Your Government with coauthor David Osborne. Madeleine Beaubien Taylor, Ph.D., has conducted policy and evaluation research for the public and nonprofit sectors since 1987. She has consulted to governments, universities, and foundations as well as to community-based nonprofits, on issues that include culture and the environment, community economic development and nonprofit network-building. John Cleveland is President and a founder of the Innovation Network for Communities (INC).

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