Cheralyn: We have done this type of work before–understanding the needs of social enterprises in various regions– but always framed it as ”community-based research.” It was always self-directed. I was always asking myself, “who am I to do this work? Living in a city like Vancouver while interviewing these folks in other regions and writing these reports.” 

Having dedicated funds available to be able to do work that doesn’t expect the typical project-based outputs and outcomes that we’re used to seeing makes a difference. I think in order for any project or program to be successful, this is the work that needs to happen so that we understand needs, and don’t come in thinking that we know best or we know exactly what’ll work.

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Mariana: Well, I honestly don’t have much experience in that piece about finding funding for ecosystem-building work. I do see that the dynamics of the community sector tend to be more results-driven, and it’s hard to measure ecosystem-building and partnership development activities in that way. That might relate to the hardship of funding such activities, partly because reporting and communicating their impact is challenging. However, having a supportive ecosystem plays a crucial role in the future success of other initiatives. 

Melissa: I think that truly does get to the heart of some of the issues that a lot of the folks I’ve been talking to have in relation to sustaining ecosystem building. They all say it’s really hard to measure and communicate the value of it, because the value is so intangible.

Gillian: It’s very hard to measure. It’s hard to say, ‘we’re creating this vision together,  building a sense of community and shared direction.’ That’s very hard to communicate on a funding application. “We created inspiration.” How do you quantify that?

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People understand dollars and cents, but there’s no financial proxy for trust, goodwill and relationships. It is challenging to explain the value of a relationship. How do I quantify that?

Melissa: Absolutely, how does a person quantify the power of relationship building, trust, and shared visioning on applications and reports.

Cheralyn Chok: I think it’s important to note that if we hadn’t already built a relationship, we wouldn’t be doing this project.

For ecosystem projects, there already has to have been that work put in by organizations. Organizations do it all the time. We build relationships and discuss and share resources even if there’s no funding or nothing telling us that we need to do it. I want to flag that it didn’t start with a project proposal and then we said, oh, suddenly we need to go look for this person in Newfoundland because we want to work on this. There needs to be a foundation.

Melissa: Yes, I remember you mentioned earlier that “Propel connected with Mariana a couple years ago… and [you] kept in touch over the years.” (refer to Part 1 “Creating Luck”)

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It makes sense. From my still early experience in this world of ecosystem building, I already am starting to see such a difference when projects that are building on the seeds that are already planted. The ones with an ecosystem already growing (pardon the pun). They are not reactionary, but rather primed for opportunities. Even in situations where it is early stages, strong relationship connections make a world of difference.

Gillian: I think this is a central tenant to our work in this sector, though. I’ve often heard it said “We work at the speed of trust.” Relationships are above all else. There’s no point in me looking for a funding proposal or trying to start a new project unless I have the relationship and the trust first. You build the relationships, and success comes from those.

So, I’m curious in terms of the scarcity mindset, is it in your case an obstacle or is it something that’s kind of bringing people together in the sector or maybe a complicated combination of both? Or something completely different? 

Mariana: So I guess a little bit of both. From what I’m hearing, I think that some organizations have reached the point where scarcity is leveraged in terms of ‘we are aware of this, and that triggers how we partner, collaborate and do things together.’ However, I’ve also seen some organizations being very protective of their programming or knowledge because of that scarcity mindset. So, I think it’s a little bit of a double-edged sword.

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[E]cosystems become a tool to enable collaboration and resource sharing, and we divest from mindsets driven by fear.

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[T]hat’s where the ecosystem building, partnerships, and trust you were saying are critical and come into play.

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And I think that’s where the ecosystem building, partnerships, and trust you were saying are critical and come into play. Without it, it’s hard to evolve into that mindset of collaborating and co-creating. Without it, there’s no sharing of intel, which could prevent us from using the ecosystem to map and fill the gaps. Without trust, we won’t be able to understand the real problems and needs of the people served, resulting on superficial or incomplete solutions instead of the identification of clear gaps and complimenting services in which every party can benefit and thrive. 

Unfortunately, there are plenty of social and environmental challenges and issues out there. So, there won’t be a lack of activities to be accomplished and problems to be addressed. For us to switch from a reactive approach (rooted in a legitimate fear of missing out, of being left out, of losing grants and supports, and ultimately of being unable to serve our communities) to a constructive or co-creating perspective we need to focus on building more supportive ecosystems and a less competitive access to resources. 

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[Supportive ecosystems help] to switch from a reactive approach …to a constructive or co-creating perspective.

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[O]ne of the best things we can do as capacity builders and ecosystem builders is to model the abundance mindset and collaborative nature.

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Cheralyn: To bounce off of that: I’m a huge proponent and fan of mergers that bring organizations together. Propel went through one; we merged two nonprofits together to make our programs and operations more efficient. I’ve seen a lot of value from this process and interest from other organizations in how we went about it. I think mergers are something that we can progress towards: from building relationships; to collaborating on proposals; to perhaps coming together with shared back office pieces such as HR, bookkeeping, and evaluation. In some cases, becoming one larger  organization makes the day-to-day easier to manage.

Melissa: I guess the takeaway is that economic hardship could be a catalyst to move people to build ecosystems to buffer and support one another to create change, but the scarcity mindset sabotages us. And I agree, it really is understandable as a survival response in our current systems. I think this really gets to what I have been hearing reiterated by partners like the National Indigenous Friendship Centres and SETSI about shifting our mindsets to abundance. 

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[E]economic hardship could be a catalyst to move people to build ecosystems to buffer and support one another to create change, but the scarcity mindset sabotages us.

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Collaboration is almost the antithesis to scarcity mindsets in this context.

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It is not an easy thing to do in times of hardship, but one thing that gives me extra hope is the nature of reciprocity and collaboration as a survival strategy that is often built into a number of community cultures, which lay the ground for the formation of ecosystems. Collaboration is almost the antithesis to scarcity mindsets in this context. If people already have those connections they can fall back on each other and navigate through those hurdles. Whereas when the connections don’t exist, it becomes more fractious and harder to navigate and there’s more of that feeling of competition over resources.

All that rambling to say thank you for this conversation. There is so much food for thought from this one discussion.

Gillian: Melissa, I have one final thought. My dad, a business man himself, has this saying that,
‘luck is where opportunity meets preparation.’ But I think in our context of social innovation and social enterprise, it could also be: 

‘Luck is where opportunity, preparation, and relationships intersect.’ (Quote reposted from “Creating Luck” Blog) 

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‘Luck is where opportunity, preparation, and relationships intersect.’

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