The Ahead of the Curve Collaborative looks to strengthen the nonprofit sector through the merits of partnership. As like-minded capacity builders, our goal is to increase collaboration and communication across purpose-driven social ventures in order to help each other overcome everyday obstacles and achieve long standing goals. We’re more powerful together than we are alone – so join us and increase your impact.
Our collaborative (formed in 2016) improves collaboration, offers referrals across organizations, expands reach, aligns work with local nonprofit organizations, and strengthens connections. Our collaborative offers the following advantages:
- A network: A like-minded and experienced network of peers
- Research: A clearinghouse for research on industry/focus area trends and insights
- New products: Means for new product development across the participating organizations
- Risk assessment: How can we collectively better understand and assess risks for nonprofits
- Advocacy: A common advocacy agenda and collective response to the overhead myth (for example)
- Data: Data sharing across organizations to inform better solutions
- Common language: Support for common definitions within capacity building
Our first event – The 2016 Ahead of the Curve Symposium – joined together capacity building organizations from the Greater New York area to think about the framework for risk assessment. We used a design thinking approach to advance our collective knowledge of the discipline of risk management. Capacity building organizations, executives and board members from direct service providers efficiently and effectively:
- Define risk and the approaches to manage opportunities and challenges of risk taking
- Explore what tools exist to manage risk and define what is needed
- Develop ideas of what more can be done to understand the parameters of risk and risk-taking for nonprofits; and
- Inform the work of capacity building organizations to more effectively support this work.
In total 17 steering committee members, 160 nonprofit organizations, and over 250 attendees attended. The success of our first symposium underscored the need for a collaborative like ours in the nonprofit sector. We look forward to achieving even more together and welcome YOU to join us.