Coordinate+Resources+and+Action

 **//What are networks good for? //**

We have observed five common reasons that leaders tap the power of networks: to weave community, access many and new perspectives, build and share knowledge, mobilize people, and coordinate resources and action. Just as most social change efforts have multiple purposes, many network solutions are designed to capture several of these benefits at once. As a result, the descriptions of network purposes that follow are archetypes, rather than mutually exclusive or exhaustive categories.

__Coordinate Resources and Action __ The network mindset and approaches are making it easier for funders and activists to coordinate their resources and actions.  The peer-to-peer giving site DonorsChoose, for instance, is matching people that want to donate money to education with targeted requests from needy schools around the country. Since its inception in 2000 as a modest project to serve New York City schools, more than $25 million has been given through the site, with almost half of that total contributed between mid 2007 and mid 2008. In the process, Donors Choose has coordinated resources to meet needs greater than would have been possible with isolated individual donations.  The Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions, initiated and supported by the Packard Foundation, is a powerful example of coordinating action through a network approach. In 2006, the foundation connected together a group of NGOs all working on standards for sustainable seafood sourcing. The hope was to align the NGOs efforts such that there would be consistent messaging to businesses about sustainable seafood. Over the course of two years, the group worked together in-person and through conference calls with Packard’s support and the help of a facilitator. In 2008 a common vision for environmentally sustainable seafood was ratified by 17 of the original __ network participants.