Needle-Moving Community Collaboratives: A Promising Approach to Addressing America’s Biggest Challenges is an article published by The Bridgespan Group.  Co-authored by Paul Schmitz, a member of The White House Council on Community Solutions and CEO of Public Allies, the article begins with the recognition that, “In a climate of increasingly constrained resources, those solutions must help communities to achieve more with less. A new kind of community collaborative—an approach that aspires to significant, community-wide progress by enlisting all sectors to work together toward a common goal—offers enormous promise to bring about broader, more lasting change across the nation.” 

The paper then reviews a number of successful cross-sector collaborative across the U.S., and synthesizes the core operating principles; key success factors; and supportive resources these collaborative need to fulfil what the authors identify as a collaborative’s primary roles: convening, facilitation, data collection, communications and administrative support.