Developing Community Alliances

The hard truth: most coalitions don’t achieve their goals. Why? • Premature launches without stakeholder buy-in. • Lack of clarity on mission and tactics. • Funders going it alone. At Community Health Impact Coalition, we spent two years in "stealth" mode: building trust, testing our value proposition, and refining our tactics before officially launching in 2019. This “long tail” approach ensured we had the foundation to succeed—today, we’re a 60+ country movement making professional CHWs the norm worldwide. 💡 To avoid broken coalitions: 1️⃣ Work first, launch later: Build something together before formalizing structures. 2️⃣ Define success early: Be “something to someone,” not “everything to everyone.” 3️⃣Raise a round: Number of donors at launch is a key predictor of success. Collaboration takes time, effort, and intentionality—but it's the only way we can solve our biggest problems. What’s your biggest takeaway from coalition work? Let’s discuss! 👇 #FieldCatalyst #CollaborationTips #SystemsChange

Most people network when they need something. The best leaders build relationships years before they ask. I have been building relationships in community development for over 15 years. Some of those relationships turned into partnerships. Some turned into funding. Some turned into opportunities I did not see coming. But none of them started with an ask. They started with showing up. Listening. Adding value. Staying connected. When I became CEO of Houston Land Bank - HLB in 2022, I did not start from zero. I had relationships with funders, government agencies, community organizations, and developers that I had been building for years. The corporate funder who gave $300,000 with a 2-pager years ago? I just ran into her the other night. She does not work for that organization anymore, but we had a genuine moment of excitement and caught up like old friends. She was the first funder who believed in me. That value goes beyond the money. Here is what I learned about building relationships before you need them: 🔹 Show up to spaces where the work is being shaped 🔹 Add value before you ask for anything 🔹 Follow up consistently, not transactionally 🔹 Document who you meet and what matters to them 🔹 Build relationships across sectors 🔹 Be patient You do not build relationships when you need help. You build them long before the need arrives. Here is how to start: 🔍Identify 5 people or organizations you want to build relationships with. 👩🏾💻Reach out with no ask. Acknowledge their work. Ask a thoughtful question. Offer something useful. 📲Stay consistent. Follow up every 3-6 months. Share something relevant. Celebrate their wins. ✍️🏾Document the relationship. Keep notes on what you learn. When the right opportunity comes, you will know who to call. The best time to build relationships is before you need them. Start now. 🤔 Who is one person you need to connect with this year? Drop a comment. #Leadership #Networking #RelationshipBuilding #CareerGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment #CommunityDevelopment #Partnerships #StrategicNetworking

My experience in leveraging federal funding for inclusive economic and workforce development has emphasized the importance of intentional coalition building over simply reacting to grant deadlines. Four key insights I've gained: - Federal grants often necessitate robust place-based coalitions, which communities may not always be prepared to establish. - Building a coalition methodically around specific, time-bound goals is more effective than forming one solely to apply for a grant. - Success hinges on clear role definition and coordination within the coalition. - Strategic stakeholder engagement focused on outcomes should drive the pursuit of federal funding opportunities. Sustainable progress extends beyond individual grant cycles, emphasizing the need to cultivate and maintain investments over time. #EconomicDevelopment #WorkforceDevelopment #CommunityBuilding #FederalFunding #StakeholderEngagement

Last week, I spoke to 5 key partners about 2025 growth challenges. All reassured me: partnerships & community is the answer. Community building isn’t just a buzzword. Community is everything this year. Imagine the power of a strong community. What does it take to build one? • Events • Partnerships • Integrated offerings This isn’t just for 2024 but especially for B2B SaaS in 2025, where partnerships and ecosystems will thrive. To build a community, you need the right partners. Tech companies, consultancy firms, any company in your ecosystem. They all play a role building a community. Together, you create an integrated offering of experiences for your mutual customers. Here’s the truth: No single platform or vendor can do it all. Not even Salesforce or Hubspot. Without a partnership ecosystem they are nowhere. Why? Because trust building through community and partnerships are key themes. I’m a big fan of both, and it’s going to be a huge theme in 2025. So let’s build communities and partner up. It’s the future of success. Here's how we build a strong community through partnerships at Personio: 1. Identify Few but Key Partners: Find companies that not only complement your ICP and solution. You should also truly find partners that fit your culture, DNA, because the collaboration and execution is even more important. Less is More. 2. Create Joint Experiences: Host dinners, workshops, or other types of events together. But focus here on unique experiences because people get tired of all the same event formats. For example the People & Culture Impact Sessions we are organizing with 7people ✨ on Feb 27th. Can't wait for this one Ingeborg. 3. Joined Events & Campaigns: Work with your partners to create valuable content. This should go far beyond blog posts or boring case studies but more towards joined events & campaigns. We share event booths with partners like Shiftbase or record masterclasses with partners like Remote. 4. Integrated Solutions beyond Product: Develop integrated offerings with your partners beyond software. Often we only focus on 'tech' integrations. But we working with partners like worldofwork™ or VW&S Group on integrated service solutions for our customers. 5. Continuous Innovation & Evolvement: Keep the community engaged through regular new event concepts. This builds loyalty and keeps your brand top-of-mind. Examples here are our pop-up restaurant HR dinners at our office or the People & Culture Impact Awards & Sessions. Partnerships and community events are the keys to success in 2025. What is your take on community, partnerships and ecosystems as key pillars for 2025 success? -- ♻️ 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 to help other Revenue Leaders. 🔔 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲 to my Newsletter for Weekly Revenue Tips.

India’s superpower isn’t scale alone. It’s our ecosystem muscle. We solve big problems by aligning government, markets and communities because coalitions, when move together with purpose, creates impact at scale. Evidence? India’s social mobilization networks were pivotal to polio eradication — a classic example of trusted community actors, NGOs, government and donors working in sync to reach the last mile. Community frontline workers (ASHAs) further demonstrate how locally embedded networks increase service delivery and adoption. And on livelihoods, the SHG-bank linkage and related community banking models have enabled large-scale financial outreach by aggregating trust-based groups — a mechanism that converts social capital into tangible economic access.   Three practical implications for development leaders: Design interventions that treat networks (not just institutions) as delivery platforms. Invest in local interoperable infrastructure — TA hubs, certifiers and trusted intermediaries — to lower transaction costs. Use blended finance to align incentives across public, private and community actors so scale is both rapid and sustained.  If we double-down on ecosystem design — combining policy, markets and community trust — India can export a development model that is collaborative, resilient and scalable. #Development #Ecosystems #PublicPrivatePartnership #MSME #CommunityDevelopment #abwci Ideas to Impact foundation II ABWCI - Association of Business Women in Commerce and Industry II Thinkthrough Consulting

85% of brands with active communities find them a source of trust and credibility. Yet most don't know how to make them work. Most see communities as just groups. But they're living ecosystems. They exchange ideas, deepen relationships, and amplify influence. Here's how to build one: 1. Lead with Purpose - Your community needs a compelling reason to exist. - Are you advancing collective knowledge? - Catalyzing professional growth? - Driving industry innovation? Clear purpose attracts committed members. 2. Engage, Don't Just Manage - Good communities require active cultivation. - Pose questions that spark meaningful dialogue. - Share authentic experiences. - Highlight member achievements. - Create opportunities for collaboration. 3. Choose Platforms Wisely - The best platform isn't about trendy tech. - It's where your members naturally gather and engage. Want to learn more about building powerful communities? Read this week's Your Human Edge newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ez3uiAKu P.S. What's your biggest community-building challenge?

“Rise to Serve & The Power of Connected Community Leadership” Leaders Warriors Friends - recently, Lucy and I had the opportunity to engage with our good friends who bring added value to their local communities, and collectively we collaborate in assisting those in need. Experiences like these reveal how community leaders enhance the lives of others through service, empathy, and dedication. By forging strong alliances, they not only improve immediate outcomes but also inspire others to step forward and join organizations, fraternities, and civic groups dedicated to service and the greater good. Community leaders play a vital role in shaping the well-being, resilience, and progress of the neighborhoods they serve. They bring vision, compassion, and structure to local efforts—whether addressing food insecurity, advocating for safer streets, mentoring youth, or creating opportunities for families to thrive. Their influence extends far beyond specific programs; they cultivate hope, unity, and a shared sense of responsibility that enriches the entire community. For leaders to remain effective, networking among themselves—and with leaders in neighboring communities—is essential. Collaboration allows them to pool resources, learn from one another, identify common challenges, and develop solutions that have a broader impact. When leaders connect, the strengths of one community can uplift another, creating a network of support that multiplies the good they can accomplish individually. This synergy strengthens civic life and ensures that no neighborhood faces its struggles alone.

What if we stopped waiting for change to happen from the top down and instead built it from the ground up? The women of Hull House didn’t just advocate for their neighborhood—they invested in it, built leadership from within, and created real solutions based on what the community needed. They practiced what we now call Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD)—not seeing the neighborhood as a collection of problems but as a place full of strengths, relationships, and solutions waiting to be developed. Read more here: https://bit.ly/418tfp7. They saw 7,000 school-age kids with only 3,000 public school seats—so they created classes and activities. Hundreds of residents had no access to baths—so they built public bathhouses. People assumed young people were dangerous—so they created youth leadership programs that proved otherwise. 💡 This is what authentic allyship looks like. It’s not just speaking about problems—it’s building alongside communities in ways that disrupt the status quo. I advocate for this kind of deep, systemic change in my work. When neighborhoods understand processes, build relationships with each other and decision-makers, develop leadership capacity, and foster true community ownership, they lead to real, lasting transformation. To leaders, decision-makers, and organizations: Are you co-creating with the people most impacted? Are you centering the solutions that already exist within communities? This is the work I train people to do. Let’s stop seeing neighborhoods as problems to be solved and start seeing them as partners in change. #AuthenticAllyship #AssetBasedCommunityDevelopment #NeighborhoodPower #CommunityLeadership #SystemicChange