Giving Compass' Take:

• Jeanine Becker and David B. Smith discuss the importance of cross-sector collaboration — leaders from the private and public sector aligning their efforts to solve a problem — and how we can encourage more of it.

• Collaboration from different stakeholders isn't always easy, but some of the success stories highlighted in this piece should provide inspiration for those looking to surmount such challenges.

• Find out what nonprofits can learn from Pixar when it comes to forming a culture of collaboration.


The striking challenges of our time — such as health care, the environment, education, and poverty — are complex, whether on a local, national, or international scale. Yet all too often we approach these issues with piecemeal and even siloed solutions, and with efforts (however passionate, intense, and even exhausting) that aren’t sufficient to address the problems at the scale at which they exist.

With the rise of complex, interdependent, and emergent challenges, effective change to secure a brighter future will require transformative, collaborative leaders who can effectively lead cross-sector collaborations.

Think, for example, of the challenge that is most pressing to you, and consider the various individuals affected and the systems at play. Can a single policy, however finely crafted, or a social program, however well run, or a new technology, however innovative, by itself solve that problem? Developmental psychologist Robert Kegan suggests that in dealing with an increasingly complex world we have two choices. Our first choice is to see the world as simpler. Our second choice is that we can increase the complexity of our own perspective to the extent necessary to meet the challenges. This means that we, as solution seekers, can choose to focus on a piece of the problem and tackle just that piece, or we can engage multiple stakeholders to craft solutions that are complex enough and possess the various perspectives and resources necessary to adequately address the challenges.

In other words, we’re seeing the rise of cross-sector collaboration — alliances of individuals and organizations from the nonprofit, government, philanthropic, and business sectors that use their diverse perspectives and resources to jointly solve a societal problem and achieve a shared goal.

Read the full article about cross-sector collaboration by Jeanine Becker and David B. Smith at Stanford Social Innovation Review.