Amplifying impact through collaborative networks: Small Foundation deepens our partnership with Converge

Small Foundation is delighted to announce our next phase of partnership with our close learning and impact network support partner Converge.  

Converge is a network of strategists, designers, storytellers, and systems thinkers based in the US. The network collaborates globally with foundations, non–profits, mission-centred businesses, and government agencies to build impact networks that increase connection, learning, and action. 

Converge believe that in a world that is experiencing profound and rapid change we need to work together more effectively than ever before. To do so requires bridging across silos, sectors, geographies, and communities. This kind of collaboration is appealing in concept but challenging in practice. Converge have – among other things – drawn on their practical experience of supporting multi-stakeholder initiatives to set out a roadmap for effective collaboration.  

Small Foundation has been partnering with Converge since 2018. Converge has helped us to develop our own network practice and provided learning and coaching support to our network partners, who unlock collaborative impact in and for SME ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa. Converge’s work to support our partners has included the development of a ground-breaking virtual Network Leadership Series in 2020, to support network leadership development and peer-learning across Small Foundation’s network portfolio and beyond.  

Through this new phase of engagement from 2021-22, Converge will continue to provide advisory support to Small Foundation network partners, drive further learning for Small Foundation to improve our network practice, and also disseminate more widely Converge’s collective learnings on impact networks. This will include sharing key messages from a new book that Converge co-founder David Ehrlichman will publish in the autumn 2021.  

This partnership is part of Small Foundation’s overall portfolio of work supporting collaborative networks. Working closely with Converge and Creative Metier, Small Foundation supports mission-aligned African networks seeking to increase sustainability and amplify cross-cutting, ecosystem-level impact.  

You can learn more about Converge’s work via their writings and resources, and follow them on Twitter at @converge4impact