Nonprofits and funders share bold goals for creating meaningful, systemic change on the issues they care about. Yet many nonprofits say they feel like they are working in silos and crave deeper connection and collaboration with peer organizations. Some funders are supporting collaborative spaces like communities of practice to help strengthen ties across nonprofits working in pursuit of shared goals and to help build their collective capacity to advance long-term systems change.
Our experiences designing and facilitating communities of practice have taught us the importance of prioritizing four key areas to build a strong community that is positioned to create change together.
Strong Relationships: Trusting relationships are the bedrock of collaboration. While it can be tempting to try to jump quickly to action, it is important to create time and space for members of a community of practice to build authentic relationships and understand how their work connects with one another.
Learning: When members of a community of practice identify priority areas for shared learning, it helps build knowledge and capacity in individual organizations while also building shared understanding and capacity across a cohort of organizations working toward a shared goal. For example, members of the Healthy Food Community of Practice identified a need to better understand systemic barriers that have led to inequities in healthy food access and consumption as well as the specific needs of BIPOC communities. Learning together on these issues led to changes in the programs and services of individual organizations and also catalyzed collaborations among participants to help address inequities. (See more on this community below.)
Action: Once community of practice members have trusting relationships and shared learning, they are better positioned to take meaningful action. They will be more likely to implement changes within their organizations, based on what they’ve learned with and from their peers. They also will have the relationships and shared understanding needed to begin to pilot new efforts in partnership with other organizations.
Field Building: By sharing insights and recommendations with the broader field, the learning and successes of a community of practice can have ripple effects beyond the participating organizations. Community of practice members can co-create content and share their learning with the broader field. This can be another lever for advancing broader, long-term systems change.
Putting the Four Components in Action
Communities of practice can help advance systems change on a range of issues. Two examples are the Healthy Food Community of Practice and the Networks for Education Equity cohort.
Healthy Food Community of Practice: The Healthy Food Community of Practice is a space for national and regional organizations to connect, learn, resource share, and take collective actions in support of local communities as they reimagine and rebuild their food systems to thrive. The goal of the community was for BIPOC communities to have equitable access and consume nutritious food – doing this will also address barriers faced by other marginalized communities.
Through four years together, the Healthy Food Community of practice yielded relationships that will endure beyond the community’s formal end, changes in learning and practice among participating organizations, and collaborations and contributions to the field. Together these outcomes contribute to a more equitable food system. Read more.
Networks for Education Equity: Education networks (e.g., professional associations of education professionals) have long been a source of knowledge and support for education professionals, but for many networks, it has been difficult to keep up with the pace of change in the field and ensure their knowledge and resources are reaching those who need it most. To address this challenge, we facilitated a community of practice for eight education networks focused on supporting better outcomes for Black and Latino students and students experiencing poverty. The result was a cohort of education networks with relationships, resources, and strategies for reaching educators to help advance equitable education outcomes for students.
While the community of practice engaged only a subset of the field of education networks, the experience led to changes in approach for participating organizations, stronger relationships that are likely to endure beyond the community of practice, and knowledge and insights that can benefit the broader field seeking to advance equity in education. Together these outcomes help education networks evolve how they share knowledge with practitioners so that they are better equipped to support education outcomes for Black and Latino students and students experiencing poverty. Read more.