Within the social impact ecosystem, there is widespread commitment to collaboration and partnership. Yet true collective impact remains challenging for many organizations and leaders. Structural silos, misaligned incentives, and resource constraints often stand in the way of catalytic, cross-sector action.

On July 24, NationSwell hosted a virtual leader roundtable designed to explore what it really takes to move from good intentions to meaningful progress. Some of the most salient insights that surfaced during that discussion appear below:

Insights:

Build with, not for — shifting from transactional partnerships to transformational relationships. Designing together and listening deeply to partners leads to more meaningful, inclusive outcomes. Be intentional about trust-building by consistently showing up and acknowledging power dynamics.

Engage your community continuously, not episodically. Building trust requires regular, structured engagement throughout the year. This goes beyond one-time listening sessions and reflects a long-haul investment in shared learning.

Avoid duplication by aligning efforts, clarifying purpose, and reducing unnecessary convenings. Streamlining meetings and mapping resources promotes more effective use of time, helps eliminate redundancy, and fosters better collaboration.

Embrace healthy tension as a part of the process. Tension between governance-building and action, between urgency and trust-building, and between funders and partners is inevitable. Recognizing and naming that tension upfront allows groups to move through it productively, rather than stalling out.

Participate in cross-pollination to unlock innovation and increase impact. Move beyond traditional silos to intentionally engage diverse actors across sectors. By designing multi-stakeholder strategies that reflect the full ecosystem, collaborations can create more resilient solutions.

Use intermediaries to accelerate timelines in ways direct funding may not. Strategic use of intermediaries allows for flexible deployment of resources while reducing burden and capacity constraints on grassroots partners. Additionally, funders should think strategically about how policy changes (like the 1% tax floor on charitable donations) affect capital flow, and how to advocate for approaches that ensure funds reach those most in need.

Ask the right questions and focus on meaningful indicators to avoid data paralysis. For example, “Ripples of Impact” is a reframe for ROI that considers how collaborations shift practices, build trust, and catalyze long-term ecosystem change. It’s not about volume of data, but whether it drives action and adaptation.