At the Barr Foundation, I funded networks for over ten years, and to see the wisdom of the field synthesized this concisely, and made this accessible, is extraordinary. The authors bring sharp focus to what have appeared as blurry concepts in the field, and in so doing, build our collective capacity as funders to create or attend to generative networks. It is rare to find writing that crisply conveys strategic concepts while weaving in the essential practice tactics, all in an exciting narrative on any topic, much less one as important in the social-change arena as networks. I’m usually bored by these kinds of books but I was totally engaged because the depth and breadth of the authors’ practical knowledge is nothing short of captivating and brilliant.
Patricia Brandes, Former Executive Director, Barr Foundation
The authors of Connecting to Change the World have rightly concluded that pooling talent and resources to address complex social and environmental problems is the only way to go. Their highly readable new book explains the art of creating collaborative solutions. Architecture 2030 is pleased to have worked with the authors when forming a national network of city-based 2030 Districts—local networks focused on carbon emissions, energy, and water reductions. Employing strategies and techniques described in their new book, the authors worked with us to develop a long term, national network business plan to support peer-to-peer information exchange, store and share data, aggregate purchasing power, create national partnership relationships, and influence national policy on transportation infrastructure, buildings, water, and energy efficiency. We enthusiastically endorse their approach, and recommend their new book to individuals and groups committed to solving problems and ensuring a positive impact.
Ed Mazria, Founder and CEO, Architecture 2030
An important contribution to the growing literature on networks, Connecting to Change the World offers startlingly useful guidance to those who need to navigate a changing new world increasingly represented by links and nodes. The book is timely, clear headed and balanced. Free of the hyperbole and conjecture that sometimes accompany claims on the potential of networks, the authors rely on their research and experience to pinpoint the benefits and limitations of networks. As a person who works with policymakers and is actively engaged in philanthropy, this will become a well-worn reference book.
Anita R. Brown-Graham, Director, Institute for Emerging Issues, North Carolina State University
We are living in a world where social change is about working networks, not about building organizations, especially if you need to work with Millennials. This book is a must read for anyone working in the nonprofit sector and wants to achieve more impact. The authors have done an amazing job overviewing the trends and offering valuable practical insights about how to build networks for social change – from design and connection to results.
Beth Kanter, Co-Author, The Networked Nonprofit and Measuring the Networked Nonprofit
Is there a 21st century blueprint for sustainable social change? If, like me, you’ve been working in the trenches to grow a new world only to be stumped by the very real barriers of weak tools—foolhardy business models, unimaginative value propositions, and the 20th century hangover of scale—then this is the book for you. Connecting to Change the World addresses those questions that cause doubt for anyone who feels trapped in the blood-from-a-stone world of civil society. We must learn to let go of control, ride the waves of popular imagination, and hold tightly onto values yet loosely onto structure. A surprisingly easy page-turner, this book sheds light on why some organizations today feel like heavy bricks, whereas others defy gravity. Read on to discover how to situate yourself closer to the alchemy of regenerative work—to grow social change that lives on longer than we do and goes to places we hadn’t previously imagined.
Richard McCarthy, Executive Director for Slow Food USA
Connecting to Change the World provides social entrepreneurs with a powerful new tool for organizing change–the creation of generative networks that empower and unleash the complementary energies of large numbers of independent and interdependent actors. Incorporating lessons from dozens of networks in a host of fields, many of which they had a hand in improving, the authors advance the understanding and practice of an important emerging tool for social change, providing specific steps to success and important insights like how networks advance from connecting to aligning to producing and the dynamics of network expansion, maturation and evaluation. I could not help but apply their constructs to the fields in which I am active, like enterprise development, asset-building and family initiative and independence. I highly recommend this book to anyone serious about unleashing social change.
Bob Friedman, founder and chair, Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), board member, Family Independence Initiative, Child And Youth Finance International, the Rosenberg Foundation
As government leaders steer more and row less, networks become an indispensable tool to solve complex problems and achieve critical public goals. This insightful book will tell you everything you need to know to create and use networks effectively. Beautifully written, with case studies woven throughout, it is as entertaining as it is useful. I wish I had read it 25 years ago!
David Osborne, coauthor of Reinventing Government, Banishing Bureaucracy, The Reinventor’s Fieldbook, and The Price of Government
Eight years ago, Pete Plastrik and Madeleine Taylor literally wrote the book on networking for social impact, with their seminal guide Net Gains. Now, together with John Cleveland, they have crafted a new touchstone for a new decade. Connecting to Change the World offers inspiration and hands-on know-how to changemakers looking to further their impact by building networks for action. Whether you’re a social entrepreneur, a nonprofit executive, a funder, or a grassroots activist, you’ll find strategies, tools, and cases that you can use to power your vision as well as your everyday work. Connecting to Change the World is essential reading for anyone who’s passionate about using networks to advance social change.
Kathy Reich, Director of Organizational Effectiveness Grantmaking, David and Lucile Packard Foundation
If you feel deeply about wanting to have impact, Connecting to Change the World is the guiding light Northstar read for you. Inspiring, practical advice for the most powerful pathway for social impact—the authors bring decades of deep experience in the most dynamic organizing model for having impact. This is a guidebook for 21st Century social transformation.
Graham Richard, CEO, Advanced Energy Economy
Collaboration has been an unfunded mandate for too many organizations, especially among non-profits. Though we know, deep in our bones, that we’re better together than alone, most of us don’t know how to activate or even initiate strong, effective networks. Plastrik, Taylor and Cleveland have spent the better part of their careers studying and trying to remedy this problem, and to great effect. Their book pulls together the latest in network theory with cutting-edge case studies to demonstrate the power of networks as a social change tool. No invention or silver bullet needed.
William Shutkin, President and CEO, Presidio Graduate School
We all know that networks are key to the next generation of civic organizing, but what is the key to networks? Connecting to Change the World is chock full of advice and hard-won lessons from the frontiers of today’s net-centric innovations. This is required reading for social change makers who are coming to understand that there is an art, a science and a discipline essential to design, develop, maintain, sustain and grow powerful networks. Plastrik, Taylor and Cleveland have assembled a how-to (and how not to) manual that practitioners will turn to for years to come.
Sterling Speirn, former president and CEO, W. K. Kellogg Foundation
The hard truth is, every organization is facing complex social problems that they can’t solve on their own. The good news is, every organization can build networks that will help them create solutions together. Connecting to Change the World is the must-read manual that will teach you how to put this strategy to work if you really want to make a difference.
Alan Webber, cofounder, Fast Company and author of Life Reimagined and Rules of Thumb
Millennials’ generational mission is to work together to change the world for the better. Connecting to Change the World is destined to become their guidebook for how to build the generative social networks they will use to accomplish their goal. Everyone interested in making global change happen at the local level will benefit from following the sage advice built on practical experience that permeates the pages of this book.