Collaborative actions are essential for the third sector. After all, they are what allow initiatives to innovate and expand their socio-environmental impact on society. However, social entrepreneurs face some challenges for collaboration between organizations.
So, how to strengthen the impact ecosystem?
This and other reflections were discussed at the 1st Good Sphere Brasil Social Meeting, organized by thedotgood in partnership with Cieds. The event, which took place on July 5, brought together some organizations that were included in the 2023 ranking of the Swiss institution. remember here.
The table ?Ways to scale and collectively leverage our impact? received our CEO Leonardo Letelier, Rafael Maretti (Collaborative Base), Luiza Serpa (Phi Institute), Sylvia Guimarães (Vaga Lume) and Taiana Jung, as mediator.
For Leonardo, to achieve greater cooperation between organizations, we need to recognize that we live in a context of competition. ?We need to bring collaboration to the real side, because it's very difficult to happen between everyone and for everyone. We need to unite where and how makes sense?, highlights.
For Rafael, the vulnerability and humanization of leaders is very important for this collaboration. ?We feel like collaborating in a human and imperfect place. Do we need spaces to not only talk about wonderful numbers, but talk about mistakes and problems, and from these stories do we understand how to support each other?, reflects.
Third sector organizations are constantly facing challenges and changing. For Sylvia Guimarães, we need to put heroism aside – often created by the media – and actively listen to beneficiaries. ?The communities in which we operate can teach us a lot. Could the degree of sharing they have be an antidote to our tendency to compete and less to collaborate?, emphasizes.
Is it possible to establish a partnership with the government?
Structural changes cannot be made without public policies. For this, it is necessary to devise strategies in common agreement with the collective objectives. Letelier comments that, at the beginning of his trajectory in the third sector, he was very resistant to involvement with the public sector. ?We still have little involvement with public authorities, but we are more open to public and political influence in a place that is ours. We understand economics.?
An example of how NGOs can collaborate with public authorities is to advance and enrich important discussions for the third sector – which is responsible for 4.27% of Brazilian GDP, according to a survey Importance of the Third Sector to the Brazilian GDP.
It is necessary that social organizations position themselves before the public sectors, in order to contribute to the creation of laws and policies that encourage and leverage our actions.
Unity makes the change
Collecting difficulties, but with a lot of hope, Luiza Serpa reinforces that we must not give up: ?Collaboration between the sector is very difficult, do we need to put aside our own agenda and open our drawers to share with each other what we have been learning and making mistakes?
For a successful partnership, a true exchange relationship, flexibility and a lot of transparency are required. We are a community of transformation and we need to find, together, paths to a new culture of action at the service of a greater good.
Here at Sitawi, we initiate movements. Let's go together? Contact us.
