Nonprofit Networks
Four Network Leadership Principles
1 Focus on mission before organization
2 Manage through trust, not control
3 Promote others, not yourself
4 Build constellations, not stars
Based on more than twenty years of research on successful networks across a range of fields and contexts, and more than two centuries of collective experience of nonprofit network leaders themselves, these counter-intuitive principles are the norms that effective networks have in common. They challenge us to examine the characteristics of our own collaborations and they provide guidance on how to ensure that the impact of our collective work is dramatically greater than the sum of the individual parts. Click the button below to read the article “Four Network Principles for Collaboration Success“, the most popular article in Foundation Review’s fifteen year history with more than 30,000 downloads.
Nonprofit Networks Leader Resources
These resources have been collected and curated by a community of practitioners and nonprofit network supporters working to increase the impact of social sector leaders and organizations by promoting the principles of successful networks.
Articles, Blogs & Case Studies
Articles
- The Most Impactful Leaders You’ve Never Heard Of
- Reimagining Boards for High Impact Through Networks
- Five Steps to Building an Effective Impact Network
- The Networked Nonprofit
- Nonprofit Networking: The New Way to Grow
- Four Network Principles for Collaboration Success
- In Collaboration, Actions Speak Louder than Words
- Want Impact? Networks Trump Organizations
- Smarter Philanthropy for Greater Impact
- Funding Successful Collaborations
- Cracking the Network Code: Four Principles for Grantmakers
- Practicing What I Preach: Creating a Network to Study & Advance Networks for Impact
- The Biggest Foundation You’ve Never Heard Of
- Want to Change the World? Humility Trumps Hubris
- Collaboration Can Bring Big Payoffs When It’s Done Right
- The Network Approach to Social Change
- Tactics of Trust: How to Build the Capacity for Finding Common Ground
- How to Make Complex Collaborations Work
- Networks as a Type of Social Entrepreneurship to Advance Population Health
- Governing a Collaborative Organization
- Opening up Educational Opportunities through Network Leadership
- From Academic to Aspiring Network Leader
- Biggest Fleet, Not Biggest Boat
- Equal Partnership
Blogs
Case Studies
- Affordable Housing: HOUSING DEVELOPMENT CONSORTIUM and ENERGY FOUNDATION
- Animal Rescue: MADDIE’S FUND
- Arts: THEASTER GATES: ARTIST AS CATALYST FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, DEBORAH CALLANAN AND YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS, and JAMES HOUGHTON AND SIGNATURE THEATER COMPANY
- Civic Revitalization: FRESNO NEW LEADERSHIP NETWORK
- Climate Change: ENERGY FOUNDATION and ENERGY FOUNDATION CHINA
- Conservation: WORLD WILDLIFE FUND US and SUSTAINABLE CONSERVATION
- Economic Development: INTERISE
- Education: GRAUSTEIN MEMORIAL FUND and THE DISCOVERY INITIATIVE and INPLAY SSIR case study
- Health and Human Services: GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND ASSOCIATION
- International Development: HABITAT FOR HUMANITY–EGYPT and DREAMS INDEED INTERNATIONAL
Videos, Podcasts & Webinars
- Achieving Impact with Networks, Slides by Marty Kooistra
- Interview on Network Leadership, Podcast with Jane Wei-Skillern (American Leadership Forum 2016)
- Cultivating a Network Leader Mindset, Podcast with Jane Wei-Skillern (SSIR Management Institute 2016)
- Get Out of Your Own Way: Challenging Your Mindsets and Behaviors, Podcast with Steve McCormick (SSIR Management Institute 2016)
- There Is No Geography to Intelligence and Passion, Podcast with Ernesto Sirolli (SSIR Management Institute 2016)
- Leading Learning: Network Leadership with Jane Wei-Skillern (February, 2019)
Nonprofit Networks Leadership Community
“Despite huge differences in issue area, scale, resources, and formal roles, successful network practitioners and their networks are remarkably similar.”
— Jane Wei-Skillern
Practitioners
There are countless unsung heroes who have been working tirelessly as network catalysts and supporting the development of networks that exemplify the four principles of nonprofit network leadership because that has been the clearest path to efficient, effective, and sustained impact. Despite huge differences in
- Jean Horstman, Interise
- David Haskell, Dreams InDeed International
- David Nee, William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund
- Eric Heitz, Energy Foundation
- Marty Kooistra, Housing Development Consortium
- Rich Avanzino, Maddie’s Fund
- Ashley Boren, Sustainable Conservation
Thought Leaders & Network Supporters
There are many experts whose work is dedicated to supporting and advancing collaborative social impact efforts. In contrast to many collaborations driven from the top down, network leadership emphasizes cultivating and supporting existing networks from the bottom up. Network leadership is demonstrated by all participants in the network and there is a strong emphasis and investment on developing the trust and relational foundation upon which all successful collaboration depends. Listed below is a selection of researchers and consultants whose work emphasizes these critical components of network leadership.
- Jane Wei-Skillern, Haas-Berkeley Center for Social Sector Leadership
- Marty Kooistra, Civic Commons
- David Ehrlichman, Converge for Impact
- Curtis Ogden, Interaction Institute for Social Change
- Madeleine Taylor & Peter Plastrik, Network Impact
- June Holley, Network Weaver
- Nadine Freeman & Odin Muehllenbein, Ashoka Globalizer
Selected Invited Speaking Engagements by Jane Wei-Skillern
VISION SERVE ALLIANCE (April 2024, Kansas City, MO)
SPROUTS FOUNDATION (March 2024, San Diego, CA)
LYCEUM LABS (January 2024, Washington D.C.)
PHILANTHROPY EUROPE ASSOCIATION (January 2024, Rome, Italy)
AARP FOUNDATION (November 2023, Atlanta, GA)
IDAHO STATE NONPROFIT ASSOCIATION (August 2023, Boise, ID)
FITO NETWORKS FESTIVAL (May 2023, online)
STANFORD SOCIAL INNOVATION REVIEW (December 2022, webinar)
BOARDSOURCE (December 2022, webinar)
UNION FOR INTERNATIONAL CANCER CONTROL (June 2022, online)
ASSOCIATION OF GLEANING ORGANIZATIONS (AGO) (May 2022, online)
UNESCO (November 2021, online)
NONPROFIT ASSOCIATION OF OREGON (NAO) (October 2021, online)
IMECE SUMMIT (March 2021, online)
GATES FOUNDATION (February 2020, New Orleans, LA)
AMERICAN LEADERSHIP FORUM SILICON VALLEY (December 2019, San Francisco, CA)
AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETIES (September 2019, Cleveland, OH)
NORTH DAKOTA ASSOCIATION OF NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS (June 2019, Fargo, ND)
STORER FOUNDATION (May 2019, Jackson, WY)
CHILDREN AND NATURE NETWORK (May 2019, Oakland, CA)
AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETIES (April 2019, Kansas City, MO)
AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND (March 2019, Washington D.C.)
GREAT OUTDOORS COLORADO (January 2019, Denver, CO)
AMERICAN LEADERSHIP FORUM SILICON VALLEY (December 2018, Palo Alto, CA)
CHANGESCALE (December 2018, San Francisco, CA)
OUTDOORS EMPOWERED NETWORK (November 2018, Oakland, CA)
SHIFT (Shaping How we Invest for Tomorrow) FESTIVAL (October 2018, Jackson, WY)
NORTH AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATORS ANNUAL CONFERENCE (October 2018, Spokane, WA)
CHILDREN AND NATURE NETWORK LEADERSHIP SUMMIT (May 2018, Oakland, CA)
VISION SERVE ALLIANCE CEO SUMMIT (May 2018, Tucson, AZ)
CENTRAL WASHINGTON CONFERENCE FOR THE GREATER GOOD (April 2018, Yakima, WA)
SEATTLE CORPORATE ASIAN GIVING CIRCLE LEADERS PROGRAM (December 2017 Seattle, WA)
INLAND NORTHWEST CONFERENCE FOR THE GREATER GOOD (October 2017 Spokane, WA)
AMERICAN LEADERSHIP FORUM SILICON VALLEY (October 2017 Palo Alto, CA)
HAAS UC BERKELEY, CENTER FOR SOCIAL SECTOR LEADERSHIP: A DAY OF INSIGHT (September 2017 Oakland, CA)
ASIAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICAN HEALTH FORUM VOICES ANNUAL CONFERENCE (September 2017 Washington D.C.)
1440 MULTIVERSITY SERVICE WEEK (September 2017, Scotts Valley, CA)
NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATIONS (NACEDA) PEOPLE AND PLACES ANNUAL CONFERENCE (JUNE 2017 Arlington, VA)
MICROSOFT ASIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE-OPPORTUNITY FAIR WORKSHOP (June 2017 Redmond, WA)
WASHINGTON STATE NONPROFIT CONFERENCE (June 2017 Bellevue, WA)
KANSAS HEALTH FOUNDATION LEARNING CONFERENCE (May 2017 Wichita, KS)
STANFORD SOCIAL INNOVATION REVIEW’S 11TH ANNUAL MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE: THE POWER OF NETWORK LEADERSHIP TO DRIVE SOCIAL CHANGE (September 2016 Stanford, CA)