Most notable, perhaps, is Malaria No More, a popular nonprofit that supplies bed nets in malaria zones. Its goal is to end deaths from malaria, a target it sees fast approaching.

The charity has announced plans to close in 2015, but it is keeping its options open in the unlikely event that advances against malaria are reversed.

“We never planned to be around forever,” said Scott Case, a co-founder of Priceline and vice chairman of Malaria No More. “We have thought of this more as a project than as an institution-building exercise, and the project is nearing its completion.”

So far, the number of organizations opting to go out of business for mission-related reasons is too small to call a trend. It is still far more common for a nonprofit to close its doors because of financial pressure, which is increasing as governments continue to pare their budgets and donors maintain tight grips on their giving. [Read the full article.]

Whether I’m talking about Community-Driven Social Impact or community organizing, whether it’s focused on a hyper-local community project or global-reaching movement building, it’s always the same for me: our goals need to be focused on a change, not on ensuring that we keep our jobs. Many colleagues, both in the UK and the US, have also been talking about this for years – sometimes referring to it as a plague in our sector, others seeing it as an affect of nonprofits operating more like businesses.

Two years ago, Hildy Gottlieb published her book, The Pollyanna Principles, and with it she helped bring together many people who were talking about and working on this same topic, even if they didn’t realize it. I reviewed her book in the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog and I’m still excited for the opportunities the sector has as Hildy explains them:

We have a huge opportunity before us to remodel our social benefit organization structure. There is so much talk both online and offline, from inside organizations and from outside, that “nonprofits are broken.” We’ve done step 1: admitted that we have a problem. Now, what?  Well, as Hildy explains, we need to start driving our work with our vision of how we want the world to be, instead of what the problems are before us. [Read the full post.]

Changing the world, regardless of the cause, community or organization we identify with, requires a vision that drives us to actually make that change – work with others, don’t recreate the wheel, create opportunities for engagement that are larger than our organization.

But, it isn’t just Malaria No More, and it isn’t just those organizations and communities in The Pollyanna Principles. I know there are so many organizations, campaigns, and community groups making real change now. I hope that they can create a path for others to follow, an open book that others can learn from, and an open door for others to join them.

Get The Pollyanna Principles!

Hildy is celebrating the two-year anniversary of The Pollyanna Principles with a discount – and if you don’t already have the book, I recommend you get it:

• Get a discount on the book
• Read the first 4 chapters for free
• Learn more about the book

Last month, Joe Solomon shared on the NetSquared Blog what he hopes is our reflection on 2011 a year from now, focused on a year full of empowering and harnessing organizers. I wanted to take a few minutes today to share my 3 Goals for 2011 – I’d love to hear what others you’d add to the list!

How can we build a better sector? 3 Goals for 2011

For me, for you, for all of our organizations; and for the sake of this world we are trying to improve!

Please note, and this is key, that these are goals for the people operating in this space. As much as we love technology, it isn’t anything without people creating it, using it, changing it, and evolving it.

Find and talk to others using the same tools

We can learn a whole lot from each other. Seriously.

Coming together to talk about tools with others who use them can also mean a louder, more unified voice in requesting changes to those tools. When one organization says they want the software or platform to work differently, it’s a nice feautre request email that may even get a “thank you for the input” message in response. But when hundreds or more organizations can all say they want a change, the message is so much louder!

Share failure and success

This isn’t a new idea. Many people have talked about how we need to, and many have even shared how they have failed, and how they’ve succeeded. But I hope we can go deeper both in what we share and how we listen. When we are talking to others about our work, our projects, campaigns or tools, what if we shared more of the “why we did it” and “how we made it happen” instead of which tools, and which messages? What if we moved from sharing which tools, tactics or campaigns were “fails” or success to a focus on sharing which strategies worked or didn’t work.

Put questions before answers

Instead of leading with answers, let’s start focusing on the questions we can ask each other, ask of funders, ask of our communities, ask of ourselves. There’s great opportunity to learn and collaborate when we approach conversations with the lens of discovering what really worked, what is really possible, and where our impact is needed. And then if we keep a mission-critical focus, wow: Big things are possible!

What do you think about those goals? What are the goals you have for funneling your frustrations into real action?

—–

I recently posted about Jumo with reflections, notes from my experience using the new platform, and questions – this post has also generated a great deal of valuable conversation in the comments (over 70 thoughtful comments so far). One response on twitter from my great friend and colleague, Joe Solomon, has stuck with me and kept me thinking: “You can’t create new game-changing start-ups for social change anymore. You have to co-create them.” And I really couldn’t agree more!

3 Core Elements to Co-Creation for Change

Co-creation is, like many other things, a word rising in standing on the buzzword list. In this case, for this conversation, co-creation is used generally to touch on issues of access and engagement, and collaboration. In each element below, it’s framed slightly differently to match the context, but is always centered on the need, as Joe shared above, to operate outside of silos.

I’ve tried to keep the 3 Elements below to brief conversation starters as I think they all could go on into lengthy pieces on their own. I hope you’ll join the conversation with your feedback and comments about each one, and share additional elements and reflections on co-creation!

On & Offline Engagement

Online is great for organizing. Whether you’re using social networks, or other shared spaces online, the social web is where you can find others, figure out the actions you want to take, spread news and information, promote the actions, and even stream media/data while taking the action. But the action, the real social change, is offline. There’s a great post on the Case Foundation blog that covers some great examples and shares, “Although activism may not look the same, it’s no question from these examples that social media and social networks can be used to motivate the masses into action, whether it be physical or monetary.”

The key is making the connection.

First, ensuring that there are opportunities to engage and participate both on and offline (especially in the promoting and sharing) can increase participation and ultimately feet in the streets. Most organizations, campaigns, and even companies get this and are trying to make toolkits, letters, and even posters than be shared at events or via Twitter, wherever people are.

Secondly, co-creation of a new organization, a new campaign, or a new tool can’t happen if the links between on and offline aren’t clear – if someone shows up in person to an event or planning meeting, they need to know where they can continue engaging online before the next offline event takes place. And the same goes for those who may be following or actively inputting to your work via the web – they should know how to join you, or join with other members, offline to continue building.

For & Non Profit Inclusion

Making social change is not reliant on a tax exempt status. Platforms that put change in front of donations enable co-creation of both impact and of other new organizations or tools.  Co-creation, at least in my opinion, works best when there’s possibility for all kinds of organizations, groups or individuals to collaborate; and, likewise, when there are options for different funding streams, even when funding isn’t defined by $.

When we (those working in the nonprofit sector) presuppose that only those with the “nonprofit” status are eligible for investing in a better future, we do all of our communities a disservice. If we really want to change the world, and if we believe there are some for-profit groups that need to change in order for our vision of the future to be realized, then let’s invite them to the table, to take a stake in change, and to co-create a path towards that vision.

Organization & Individual Changemakers

Co-creating new tools, campaigns, organizations or opportunities for social change requires certain opportunities: to be able to form teams, a place/way to showcase ideas, creating a shared vision, and opportunity to communicate across the group/network. Having an organization isn’t a requirement for participation in any of those. It should not matter whether I work for a nonprofit, or if I work at all.  If I have an idea to change the world, I should be just as welcome and have equal access to the spaces where I can share the idea and find others to help me make it come to life.

But, that’s just what I think – how do you feel?  Looking forward to your ideas!

Why

This website has been a great place for me to post ideas and share lessons learned, store content from presentations, and share resources. But, it was always something I had as the last bullet on the to-do list to update the CSS, to change the theme, generally “make it better.” As much as I have enjoyed all that we have been able to do together in this space, I’m much more excited about what we could do together in a more organized, easy to use space.

Right now, this blog could really be categorized as a blog. But I’d like it to be seen for what it is: there are tons of presentation resources (slides, notes, videos, etc.), books/publications, and other resources. But what’s really important to me, is that there are A WHOLE HECK OF A LOT of conversations here: there are around 500 posts and over 6,700 comments! I want to ensure that what you all are saying gets a lot more visibility.

Who

As I’ve been meaning to revamp the site for a couple years now, I knew that getting to done on this project would take more than myself! I put out on Twitter that I was looking for someone to help me redesign the site and connected with Matt Chevy:

I’m excited to be working with Amy and it’s clear that she’s established an outstanding community here. When she initially mentioned to me that she wanted to involve all of YOU in this process, I immediately bought in. In the world of online marketing and Social Media we talk about engagement and community involvement, and we hope to really emphasize this by encouraging and requesting your thoughts, suggestions and feedback from beginning to end. I couldn’t be more excited to get started; I’m thrilled to have connected with Amy, and I look forward to interacting with all of you!

Matt’s going to be doing the heavy lifting on the back end. But I can’t do a redesign without you, the readers!

How

So, how’s this open process going to work? Well, first of all, I’d love to hear what is most useful or valuable to you, why you keep reading and commenting, what you wish there was more of (or less of!) and any other feedback you have about doing a redesign of this site.

Next week, I’m going to be asking for lots of feedback and ideas in a series of posts. Today’s post is mostly an announcement and a heads up; next week there will be three posts asking for your ideas and preferences. That information will help Matt and I ensure that the redesign delivers on just what you want, need, and already like!

I’m really excited to update and upgrade this space and so thrilled to be working with a designer willing to work with me in this collaborative approach, keeping all of you in the process! Really hope you’ll join me next week to share your ideas.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a comment here or email me any time.

—–

More about Matt:

Matt Cheuvront is the founder of MATTCHEVY – a Chicago-based online marketing consultancy and web design firm. With a background in advertising, marketing, e-commerce, and PR, Matt has a passion for the online medium and works with small businesses, non-profit organizations, entrepreneurs, and bloggers in improving and establishing their overall web presence.

In Ben’s words:

CharityComms 2020 is a presentation where key figures in charity communications have teamed up to produce a snapshot of the most significant communications trends of the coming decade.

Contributors come from a wide range of well known charities, including Amnesty International, Macmillan Cancer Support, UNICEF, Friends of the Earth, The Scout Association, and many more. There’s also a group of well known influential thinkers who have contributed, including Jonathan Waddingham at JustGiving, Rachel Beer at beautiful world, Steve Bridger and Amy Sample Ward.

I’m flattered to see the quality of contributors that we’ve brought together for this initiative and hope you see this reflected in the quality of the ideas, insights and inspiration contained in the presentation.

Ben asked me to participate in this very fun and insightful project to highlight and share our views of the top 5 trends for the next decade for technology and social media that will impact charity communications. What were my ideas?

• co-creation – of services, programs, campaigns
• flatter processes – less hierarchy in organizations, fewer steps in finding information and services
• portability – moving to the cloud; conversations and content moves seamlessly across platforms
• privacy and ownership – creative commons and other licensing can’t support all the rules and options we’ll need for the content we’re creating and wanting to won
• personalization – the more we create and the more we share, the more we expect to shape how we receive and browse

Check out the ideas from everyone that participated – each contributor has a slide in the below show:

Your Invitation

You’re invited to add your own five trends and an accompanying image to the presentation by sending Ben an email and he’ll update as further submissions are received.

What are your five trends you see affecting charity communications in the next 10 years?

Join the conversation by using #cc2020 on Twitter!

And now they are up to something again: MMT is looking for a million dollar idea to support!

More information is in the press release below – you can contact Marie with additional questions.

The foundation will collect the ideas from Oregonians on a forum on the web at ideas4oregon.org to commemorate MMT reaching $500 million in money distributed to tax exempt organizations, primarily in Oregon.

“Half a billion dollars in 28 years from the personal estate of one of Oregon’s leading entrepreneurs leaves a powerful legacy,” said MMT Board Chair Orcilia Forbes. “Our funds have helped make Oregonians healthier and better educated, provided greater access to social services and the arts and culture, strengthened the nonprofit sector and improved the environment for all who live and visit here.”

Meyer Memorial Trust is the largest private foundation in Oregon, established from Fred G. Meyer’s personal estate. It began operating in 1982 and anticipated awarding $5-$6 million a year. In fact, over the past five years, MMT distributed an average $28 million per year in grants and program-related investment loans, surpassing $500 million with its most recent awards. At the same time, its assets have grown from $120 million to about $600 million, after giving away $500 million.

“To mark this occasion, we prefer to look ahead, not back,” MMT CEO Doug Stamm said. “We’d like all Oregonians to join us in kicking off the next $500 million. We think that’s where Fred Meyer would want us to look.”

Stamm noted that the million dollar idea challenge supplements MMT’s existing grant programs and initiatives, rather than supplanting any ongoing funding.

This is the first time the foundation has asked for broad and direct public input in its grants process. “We’ve set a goal to make MMT a national model of a regional foundation,” Stamm said. “Foundations are beginning to open themselves up as never before, and we want to be a leader in that movement.”

Forbes said the onslaught of bad news that Oregonians have heard in recent months contributed to MMT’s public approach.

In November 2009, Oregon was identified as one of the 10 states in most fiscal peril by the Pew Center on the States. Unemployment remains among the highest levels in the nation, with many more underemployed and in dire financial straits. Recent revenue forecasts were $577 million below what was projected just a few months ago. The global reach of the recession hurts exporting states like Oregon more than other states. Sharp declines in construction severely affected Oregon’s wood products industry and the state experienced high tech manufacturing job losses in the recession.

In response to the economic crisis, during 2009 MMT expanded its grantmaking strategies to help nonprofit organizations survive the economic downturn by helping with core and general operating expenses. In addition, MMT made significant grants for emergency food, utilities, rent and foreclosure assistance, and increasing access to the Earned Income Tax Credit. Through these awards, along with its ongoing grants programs, the amount MMT distributed remained constant, despite a significant decline in the foundation’s own assets.

“While we know foundation resources alone are by no means sufficient to solve our region’s significant challenges, we believe that opportunities exist for MMT to jumpstart actions that will lead us to a brighter future,” Forbes said. “We are looking for ways to provide meaningful leverage that help create conditions that will lead Oregon to its next best place.”

“Oregon used to be a hotbed of energetic innovation,” Stamm said, “but we are at risk of begin caught up in contagious pessimism. Do we really want to keep pointing to the bottle bill as our last great shining moment?”

“We hope this idea forum will help change the conversation in the state from how bad things are to what can we do to make them better,” Forbes said. “Meyer Memorial Trust can’t solve Oregon’s problems, but we’re willing to step up and try to jumpstart us in a better direction.”

The forum asks visitors to identify what they think is the most pressing issue facing Oregon and to share their best ideas to address it.

Stamm hopes the web forum will attract ideas from all Oregonians, not just nonprofits.

“Oregon’s issues go far beyond what nonprofits do,” he said. “We need to move beyond our customary categorical thinking and invite everybody – business, government, communities, organizations, individuals – to work together to address the issues we face before it’s too late.”

“This is not a time for faint-hearted suggestions, it’s a time to think big,” Stamm said. “We want bold and innovative, entrepreneurial ideas… the kind Fred Meyer might have had.”

All content of the forum will be public, with comments and feedback on ideas welcomed, Forbes said. “We want Oregonians to get engaged with us.”

While idea challenges and social media contests are increasingly used by corporations, governments and in philanthropy, ideas4Oregon.org has a far larger potential fiscal reward than most.

Ideas can be submitted and commented on until July 13, 2010. After all ideas are in, MMT will use them to craft a Request for Proposals, inviting applications to make a case for funding from the $1 million.

“If we get more than one outstanding idea, we’ll consider making multiple awards,” Stamm said. “Because we’ve never tried this public format before, we can’t predict just how it will go, and need to be flexible enough to make the most of this opportunity.”

Meyer Memorial Trust is a private independent foundation resulting from Fred G. Meyer’s personal philanthropy and is not affiliated with Fred Meyer Inc., the retail enterprise.

Since co-authoring Social by Social last year, David Wilcox and I have had the opportunity to collaborate and facilitate various events for community and local government groups.  Most recently, we facilitated at the Transformed By You event put on by Medway and Kent County Councils as a jointly-supported event to look for new ways to do things with the community. Creating documentation for the event to share with those organizing and helping out on the day was the last push I needed to finally write up the process and approach for others to use, remix, and share.

The documentation explores Project Spaces conceptually as well as provides examples of how to hold a Project Spaces event.  And I want to share it with you, get your ideas, and start a long-term process of collaboratively improving and refining this model.

Check out the Project Spaces wiki.

There are a few ways to dive in:

• View the book as a slide show: on the website or on slideshare
• View the book on the website: as one page or through the sections on the right
• View the book in PDF: download here (we warn you about the file size though!)

I invite you to check it out and connect with any of those that inspire you or get you thinking when you read it.  To get you started, I’ve included the introduction to the book below from Jean Russell.

Enjoy!

—–

Thrivability Introduction

Jean Russell, Thrivable.org – Chicago, IL, USA
Thank you for viewing this book. It comes alive in your gaze.  I want to introduce you to thrivability by answering some of the questions you have. I am guessing that they might be questions like – what is thrivability and who are these people contributing to it?

What is thrivability – a working definition
In the dance between the individual and humanity as a whole, there is an aliveness.  In aliveness, there is a yearning for thriving.  All living things strive to move beyond survival to truly flourish.  Even in the development of this very project, the aspiration for thriving was clear — the enthusiasm of a very diverse circle of people focused on  a simple idea: that the goal of evolving our behavior should be to thrive.   And it gives rise….to this book.

Thrivability is our path out of unsustainable practices toward a world where all people have a high quality of life, a voice, and a nurturing earth supporting them.  Using whole systems approach, we evolve our way of being together, of collaborating, so that our collective wisdom and action bring forth a flourishing world and thriving life.

Why these words and phrases?
There is no single recipe or discrete list of requirements for thrivability. However, I created several groups of words and phrases that relate to it in some powerful way.  Perhaps they reframe a perspective or engage in a critical role.  The contributors of this book refined and evolved the title words and phrases. It is an exploration they have joined me in, and I hope you will join us too.

A bit about our contributors
Our contributors are from widely different fields – from social entrepreneurship to philanthropy, from deep tech space to community activism, from neuroscience to labor and economic history, from social network analysis to storytelling. I expect that you, the viewers and participants, are a wide range of people too. Like you, the contributors are from a vast array of places in the world from Stockholm, Brussels, and London to Thailand,  Australia, and Uganda, and include Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, NYC, Los Angeles, Houston, Cleveland, Chicago, and Boston. From noted academics to get-your-hands-dirty entrepreneurs, from scientists to the tree-climber next door, we connect them together to lay out the general topography of a thrivable world.

Together we sketch our view of thrivability.  We may not all agree. However, I think you will find, as I did, that while the field of interest may be different, the core principles, values, and beliefs about thrivability come through consistently, as core words 
re-appear on other pages. Please enjoy this curated collaborative sketch of thrivability. I invite you into the conversation.

What does thrivability mean to you?
What does it mean for those of us who suffer?
Are we thrivable already, only becoming less so?
How do you apply the idea of thrivability in practice – in your life, at your work, in your community?
How is it possible to co-create a thrivable world?

“A good question sparks more questions,” says one humble,  extraordinary, and curious friend of mine. I think he is right.

In grace and with gratitude,
Jean Russell

Thrivable.org strives to equip agents of transformation in order to co-create a thrivable world. We reveal the breadth of domains and their interweaving. We enable thrive agents to know where they are and what they can do and be for collective thrivability.

—–

Scott Anderson is the Director of Communications for DSI, the developer of ClientTrack. He earned his PhD in Communications from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to his PhD, he worked as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in community health, adolescent residential treatment, and a faith-based organization.

(I appreciate this opportunity to talk about ClientTrack and its ability to promote effective collaborations. As many of you know, Amy is a magnificent example of bringing people together through technology to make a difference. I’ve been impressed with her ability to connect people and powerful ideas. I’ve been a “taker” from her source of information, and now I hope I can be a “giver” of information that might help others. Thanks, Amy, for all you do!)

First, what is ClientTrack?

ClientTrack software products and professional services provide comprehensive solutions for the Health, Human and Social Services community.  ClientTrack is an extremely capable web-based solution that fully:

• Enables organizational best practices and improves efficiency at a pace organizations can support,
• Ensures and simplifies compliance reporting for funding sources,
• Enhances outcome reporting to strengthen fundraising and build community awareness, and
• Optimizes collaborations within and between organizations.

How does CT define “collaboration” and what is so important about it?

For us, collaboration is about using technology to smoothly and effectively bring people and community resources together to accomplish more than what any one entity could accomplish alone. Co-laboring (working together) is not just nice, but necessary in the social service world. From an ecological perspective, individuals who seek support from social services generally require interventions in multiple domains, from housing to work assistance, to counseling, energy assistance, or after school programs, to name a few. Because we want to help the “whole” person, we need to be able to provide “whole” solutions. And that’s what effective collaborations among community providers do.

The words “smoothly” and “effectively” are essential to notice. The “smooth” part refers to ClientTrack’s ability to facilitate (i.e., “make facile, or easy”) the information sharing process. Community service providers can use ClientTrack to securely and confidentially share client information (with client consent). Among other benefits, ClientTrack makes it possible for a provider to immediately check availabilities and openings with other community service organizations, instantly enroll a client in their services, provide immediate referrals, and provide intake information electronically to the other providers. When information and services are shared like this, the client doesn’t have to fill out paperwork again, and providers don’t need to spend unnecessary time re-collecting basic information (which equates to saving money… something we could all use right now!).

By “effective,” I refer primarily to the ability to track client-level information across a number of community services. A primary case-manager, for example, might be able to immediately see that a client visited an employment agency over the last week, or was able to find temporary housing through another service provider. Beyond this immediate knowledge, client outcomes (e.g., quality of life, self-reports, self-sufficiency) can be assessed based on system-wide information, and not simply a “snapshot” of services received in one location.

In summary, collaboration is critical because a client-centric approach, tied into a community of resources through technology, facilitates simplified, whole solutions that can be evaluated based on system-wide outcomes.

Do you have any specific examples about new ways organizations are collaborating more effectively or more efficiently?

Three examples showcase a few of the collaborative efforts of our current clients. Their organizations are of various sizes, and each has unique needs and means for collaboration.

>> Example One: Large Collaborations

One of our clients is the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC; http://www.aidschicago.org). They are a local and national leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS, due in large part to their innovative, collaborative approach to providing services to individuals affected by HIV/AIDS. Specifically, they serve as a “lead agency” overseeing and coordinating services among more than 60 affiliated organizations in the Chicago area. Over 50 of their organizations now use ClientTrack, providing smooth, secure exchanges of client information from one service to the next. The system is configurable to each organization’s specific needs, but shares the same information pool. This translates into a reduction of duplicated information, saved time in information gathering, improved client services, and ultimately, improved organizational efficiency. Shared information allows participating providers to spend less-time in paperwork, and more time in people-work.

The scale of their collaborative efforts is inspiring, but what’s even more notable, is how it all seems to be working out so well. Through this “lead agency” model of collaboration, AFC can provide clients with excellent care across a continuum of services and decrease the gaps in service clients might otherwise experience. Additionally, through this model, AFC is in an unprecedented position to evaluate client-level information from a system-wide perspective. What this means is that they will eventually be able to track the progress of an individual as a result of receiving multiple services throughout the community. Because of their broad vision and future-looking leadership, AFC was recently awarded a substantial grant from a private foundation that will help them improve their client information systems, including enhancements to further leverage their implementation of ClientTrack.

For any who are interested, we are hosting a very relevant webinar in a couple of weeks. The Director of Program Data and Special Projects at AFC will be discussing how AFC has encouraged community programs to “buy into” their collaborative efforts, and the strategies others might consider to successfully build their own collaborative networks. (More information available on the CT website.)

>> Example Two: Resource Power through Collaboration

We are currently in the first phase of implementation with a group of three Community Action Agencies in Massachusetts. In this situation, the collaboration among the organizations is not about the need to share client information between organizations (as a result of geographical separation). Instead, they recognized that a common intake process among all the agencies would benefit policy advocacy and decision-making on a state level. That is, by collaborating to collect the same information and use the same intake assessment, they can improve the quality of information (e.g., number of individuals served, total money spent in given programs) they use in their advocacy efforts on a larger, macro scale.

As a second benefit, their collaborative efforts granted them purchasing power that they would not have had otherwise. As a group, they were awarded a state grant to assist them in implementing software that would support a universal intake solution. With those funds, they hired an agency to help them assess, find, and implement an appropriate solution. They were able to share and reduce costs along the way specifically because they were working together. Their collaborative efforts created funding and service-improvement opportunities they couldn’t have had working alone. Through collaborative efforts, this group of Community Action Agencies is accessing resources that only collaboration could provide.

>> Example Three: Collaboration Effectiveness and Excitement

A final example is Action for Boston Community Development, Inc. (ABCD) (http://www.bostonabcd.org/). ABCD is the oldest and largest community action planning (CAP) agency in the United States. The organization provides more than 100 programs through 13 community neighborhood centers that impact more than 100,000 low-income families in the Boston area.

As a tool for optimizing collaborations, ClientTrack has made a difference for ABCD in three primary ways. First, ABCD has been able to improve their internal collaborations. Specifically, the technology has allowed each of their programs to “speak the same language” in the data they collect and share. Like many nonprofits, they were using a variety of software programs to meet a variety of needs (e.g., intakes, assessments, eligibility determinations, case progress notes, scheduling, referrals). As a result, the ability to share information from program to program or center to center was challenging, given that the information—often duplicated—was created in different formats that were not easily compatible with one another. By using ClientTrack, ABCD was able to standardize the process for collecting information, bring the functionality of many programs into a single program, and share a common pool of securely accessible information about their clients. Through the shared database, workers in ABCD’s neighborhood centers are now able to conduct quicker intakes for clients already in the system, reduce duplicated information, track services received in other programs, simplify referrals, track system-wide outcomes, and many other aspects required for effective case management. By collaborating and sharing information, ABCD’s staff has simplified and automated many of their administrative procedures. This translates directly into letting them focus more on what matters most…the people they serve.

The second benefit for ABCD of collaborating and sharing data is the ability to use information for broader, organizational-wide purposes. Specifically, because their information is stored in one central database, ABCD can access the data in a variety of ways. They can use the information to create reports for various grants they receive (a very large task!), analyze the effectiveness of their programs and services, or create reports that showcase the benefits of their services to donors and their communities. By coordinating shared information among their various programs, they can show better accountability and transparency regarding their funds and the services they provide.

Finally, in developing their collaborations, ABCD has noticed that other programs affiliated with ABCD, but not currently using ClientTrack (whether due to prior investment or funding requirements), are noticing the value of their collaborative efforts. The fact that ABCD’s collaborations in case management are really happening, and are not just ideas on paper, is generating an appeal and excitement among other organizations. This excitement, in turn, will generate further collaborative efforts. When done well, collaborations can perpetuate and expand their own existence, to the benefit of all involved.

Regardless of the specific tools used for collaboration, what are some of the processes or elements to success you’ve seen?

I approach this response with a technology bias. I strongly believe that collaborative technology solutions are critical for social benefit organizations to maintain viability and avoid liability. The paper-based approaches to providing services are a liability for nonprofits, given that many funding organizations increasingly want to be certain their money is being maximized. Seeking grants is fundamentally about reducing uncertainty, and paper-based processes only open the door to greater uncertainty (regarding efficiency, security, privacy, reporting, etc.). With that said, the following is my list of specific processes and elements that lead to successful collaborations:

1. Visualize your “ideal” collaboration before anything else. This will be the basis of implementing solutions that work.
2. Find champions of your collaborative efforts and let them help you promote your vision.
3. Implement a technology solution that can grow, change, and keep up with your vision and expanding collaborative efforts.
4. Implement a technology solution that can “talk” with other technology solutions used by other organizations.
5. Implement a technology solution that works with data the same way you work with people…client-centered (not service-centered). This approach to data makes tracking clients across collaborations much easier.
6. For smaller organizations, join with other community organizations to increase purchasing power on your collaborative technology solutions.
7. Be creative with collaborations: Share advertising, events, office space, or other resources.
8. Recognize that collaborations are like marriage or getting a new roommate: you’re bringing together different systems that require mutual adjustments. Those adjustments can be difficult and take time and effort, but are well worth the outcomes.

What’s ahead for you in 2010?

As a ClientTrack team, we are looking forward to 2010 and the opportunities to again link arms with nonprofits everywhere to make a difference. I don’t want to make light of a “kumbaya” setting, but there’s a lot to understanding the power of people and communities coming together in a common cause. These are difficult times for many nonprofits, with tightened funding streams and increased demands for service. 2010 is not likely to improve.

But, we are confident that we have solutions that can help community providers make a difference. Creative collaborations will be critical in 2010; that’s why I’ve identified collaborations as one of the five things nonprofits must know in 2010. We can help organizations leverage technology to improve their day-to-day efficiency, simplify compliance reporting, enhance outcomes reporting, and build meaningful collaborations. We have outstanding products and services, developed and implemented by a group of dedicated people. We look forward to opportunities to share our solutions and work with organizations committed to providing best-practice services, quality care, and life-changing collaborations on behalf of their clients. By pushing together, we can move mountains.

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I’m so happy to share this interview with Scott because of the great examples he has to share from his work and the sector.  He’s been a great resource and conversation starter recently for me.  If you would like to contact Scott, learn more, talk about ideas or examples he has shared here, or just say hi, you can leave a comment here, follow ClientTrack on Twitter, or visit the CT blog.