Feature Articles
Making Collective Impact Work [By: Paul Born]
 Channeling Change is the just-released article co-authored by John Kania, Mark Kramer and Fay Hanleybrown that builds upon their hugely popular 2011 article Collective Impact. It offers a deepened understanding of the term "collective impact" and specific advice - using examples from Tamarack and Vibrant Communities among others - to illustrate key elements of the work involved in starting, leading and sustaining collective impact initiatives.
Go here to learn more and access the full article...
Leadership, Governance & Community Collaboratives [By: Liz Weaver]
 Increasingly, communities are joining together to address complex issues. Over the past 10 years, thirteen cities across Canada have formed collaborative planning tables to address poverty, a complex issue with multiple root causes. At the same time, other cross-city collaborative planning tables have formed addressing issues such as newcomer settlement, food security, and affordable housing. These tables require a new approach to governance engaging a new mix of stakeholders who have different approaches to the issue and a limited history of working together.
To discover more about promising practices in collaborative governance read on...
Ideas We're Following...
Five Good Ideas in the Top Right Drawer
[By: Alan Broadbent]
Much of the work in Canada is done in a broad sector often called The Community Sector. It is a diverse sector but most in it share the realities of scarce funding and stretched management. Each senior manager wears many hats: chief executive, manager of human resources, chief financial officer, head fundraiser, technology guru, program manager and dishwasher all in one person, all in one day, every day. What it means, then, is that they have to be awfully good to be able to do so many things at a high level. But where does a mid-career person facing promotion go to learn so many things in a time-effective way? To help these time-pressed managers, Maytree has published Five Good Ideas: Practical Strategies for Non-Profit Success, a collection of good practices based on its popular lunch-and-learn program.
Read on to discover how you can easily access the best of the Five Good Ideas ...
Learning Communities: Scaling Up Community Innovation
[By: Donna Jean Forster-Gill]
The power of learning communities lies in their ability to accelerate effective solutions to complex community problems. In a learning community, innovations can be introduced, experimented with and ultimately, scaled up more quickly. That is because they offer an opportunity for a co-generation of knowledge through inquiry and individual research that is quickly shared.
Read on to find out how you can join an intentional learning community...
Convening for Social Change - Opportunities & Dilemmas
[By: Liz Weaver]
Jay Connor, author of Community Visions, Community Solutions: Grantmaking for Comprehensive Impact has worked with leaders of diverse constituencies in communities across America, and has seen that in order to be effective, community leaders must be comfortable at the intersection not only of organizations and cultures but also at the intersection of the nonprofit, business and governmental sectors. This is why convening for social change is a critical community competency needed to find solutions to our most pressing issues.
Find out how you can learn more about convening for social change here...
A Tool-Box for Community Collaboratives
[By: Sylvia Cheuy]
The White House Council for Community Solutions has a mandate to "identify the key attributes of effective community-developed solutions to our national problems." As part of this effort they are working to build capacity within communities to "establish collaboratives as a means to creating broad-based change." One vehicle for building community capacity is the Council’s recently released, Community Collaboratives Toolbox.
Read more and access the Community Collaboratives Toolbox here...
Highlights From
Tamarack's Learning Communities
ideas
Tamarack has engaged several Thought Leaders who regularly share their insights with members. Below are three ideas contributed by our Thought Leaders in January:
- Are Advocacy and Collaboration Compatible? More >>
- Moving from Charity to Investment More >>
- What is your ONE word for 2012? More >>
Resources
- Community of Practice Design Guide More >>
- 10 Tips for Writing an Effective Blog More >>
Podcasts
Feature Cities (Please log in or join to view city profiles)
About Engage!
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In this issue we’re pleased to share, fresh off the presses, the latest article Channeling Change by John Kania and his colleagues which builds upon the ideas laid out in their hugely popular 2011 article Collective Impact. The role of governance and leadership in collaboratives is examined and the value of learning communities as a vehicle for scaling up community innovation is explored. The skill of convening across sectors is identified as a critical capacity for community innovation and a Community Collaboratives Toolbox - the latest resource from the White House Council on Community Solutions - is shared. Finally we’re pleased to profile a powerful new book, Five Good Ideas: Practical Strategies for Non-Profit Success, which synthesizes the very best of eight years worth of good practice presentations to community sector managers as something we’re sure you’ll want to keep close at hand.
Engage! e-magazine is published by Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement, to bring you inspiration, ideas, and resources to envision and create vibrant communities. We would love your ideas to help us improve our format. Please email us with your comments. Photo used in top banner courtesy of Carl Hiebert. 
