At a time when funders are increasingly calling for nonprofits to work together and almost every organization knows of another doing similar or complementary work, it seems likely we are experiencing a duplication of efforts in many cases. Even so, it can be very challenging to engage another organization in your core work. This session is designed to help leaders learn from other communities about openness, collaboration, accountability, and ownership. In particular, we will use the Open Source software movement to draw lessons for those organizations seeking to cross institutional boundaries for genuine collaboration towards shared goals. We will review the tools, techniques and cultural norms of sustainable communities, highlight where these may challenge entrenched mental models and habits of organizations.  We will show how to create shared ownership and foster continuous listening within a diverse collaboration. We also offer a straight-forward approach for those wishing to lead or facilitate collaborative projects.

The Open Source model can help break organizations out of their traditional mental models about ownership and aid in seeing a new way of creating lasting relationships with colleagues based on collaboration instead of competition for resources. Additionally, since this model leads organizations to be able to achieve more than they could on their own, it emphasizes how we can shape relationships to generate abundance through greater sharing.

The presenters will speak from their experience in Open Source projects over the last 9 years, as well as from their experience working in collaborative projects with nonprofit organizations.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Understand what Open Source is and isn't and how the principles behind Open Source can guide successful collaboration.

2.   Learn a concrete model for collaboration and sharing resources (Social Sourcing), where organizations "give a little, get a lot"

3.   Take home tools and techniques to ensure the needs of members are continuously heard and responded to

Level: Intermediate