The Future is Collective Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation 2025

Collective action activities Capability Activities Building movementsCreating a shared narrative: ProjectTogether creates a shared narrative that a new “HOW” is needed to drive social change, assembling actors from across different sectors to enable collective action. Moreover, each mission creates a shared narrative around the mission’s challenge to mobilize and motivate hundreds of stakeholders. Expanding the stakeholder base: ProjectTogether promotes an ethos of “unusual alliances”, bringing together actors who would not normally work together so that “bottom-up” solutions can be connected to established “top-down” structures. They also "mobilize for momentum" by monitoring the external environment and then channelling this energy into mobilizing more stakeholders to join together in missions. Organizing field-level convenings: ProjectTogether intentionally creates an annual rhythm of meetings, celebrations and convenings that bring together the mission communities and the entire community for learning, connection and implementation of collective action projects. Celebrating key milestones: ProjectTogether sets milestones across missions twice a year. These milestones are agreed upon with ProjectTogether’s external board of advisers and include key performance indicators (KPIs) such as the number of collective action projects created through ProjectTogether’s missions and the number of valuable connections between stakeholders formed. Within the missions, ProjectTogether shares regular updates and stories of change with the mission communities. Strengthening data systemsCreating shared definitions: ProjectTogether has created a number of shared terms – such as missions and collective action projects – that reflect the structure and ethos of the organization. Developing shared metrics: ProjectTogether encourages missions to develop metrics that make sense for their initiatives rather than standardizing metrics across projects and missions. Where possible, ProjectTogether does collect metrics related to the connectedness of missions, such as number of connections, strength of connections, strength of attachment to the mission and return on time invested. Influencing institutionsRe-envisioning the public sector: ProjectTogether has a cross-mission initiative called Re:Form which is bringing together administrators in the German government across departmental boundaries, all federal levels and hierarchies. The aim is to connect civil servants who are changing and improving the bureaucratic state so they can learn from one another and instil culture change within public institutions. These civil servants work on implementing concrete experiments as well as an overall framework and vision for the state of tomorrow. Connecting civil society with government ministries: ProjectTogether’s missions work with their respective government ministries in Germany. For the Welcome Alliance, ProjectTogether is working closely with the Ministry of the Interior, for example, on an inter-civil society and ministerial exchange, bringing together ministries and civil society organizations for bimonthly coordination meetings. This mission also works closely with other public institutions such as the Employment Agency and job centres. Hosting learning communities and building capacityCodifying a methodology: ProjectTogether codifies and continuously improves its “operating model” which is the methodology that guides mission development. Three to four times a year, the whole ProjectTogether team comes together for team retreats to cultivate cross-mission learning and exchange knowledge. Capturing and disseminating learnings: ProjectTogether generates and disseminates learnings in a number of formats, including in-person and virtual events (fireside chats, panel discussions) and publications. ProjectTogether’s learning hub is a platform where practitioners learn from each other and share experiences and practices by building a common learning culture, learning practices and knowledge base. ProjectTogether also works with academia in real-time learning partnerships. Hosting communities of practice: ProjectTogether hosts weekly peer learning sessions for mission leads as well as biweekly learning sessions for the whole team, often including external partners. In these learning sessions, the team shares experiences and examples while practicing important skills together (e.g. through role plays) or inviting guests and experts for inspiration and idea generation. The Future is Collective: Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation 37