The Future is Collective Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation 2025

Governance and participation ProjectTogether is governed by a core leadership circle, which guides the strategic direction for the organization. Mission decision-making is almost completely decentralized with mission leads (usually co-leads) and cross-functional teams responsible for specific milestones and initiatives. Alignment between missions happens through the learning hub, weekly meetings and quarterly team retreats. ProjectTogether also has an external advisory board which meets twice a year, setting six-month milestones for the team. The advisory board has a number of smaller sub-groups for specific topics which meet more frequently to guide specific workstreams. Team culture and competencies ProjectTogether has documented its team culture to set a strong intention for the way it works. The team is organized in “circles”, which are responsible for missions and operational functions. Within these circles, team members assume standardized roles according to their interests and skill sets. The team has a rhythm of shared experiences and rituals to provide ample opportunity for cross-learning. Specific meeting formats include the weekly “all hands” and biweekly “all brains” meetings which ensure cross-pollination and alignment across circles. ProjectTogether also organizes “team days” three times per year and biannual celebrations for team- and trust-building.Collaborative and adaptive learning ProjectTogether has a strong culture of continuous and adaptive learning across its missions and operations. On a weekly basis, mission leads meet to discuss what they are learning, share challenges and make requests for support. The team conducts an annual review of its methodology, updating it to be in line with recent learnings from missions. In some cases, this process results in a complete “makeover” of the methodology, while in other cases, the result is just “tweaks”. ProjectTogether also recognizes that collaborative work naturally results in tensions: the organization sees these tensions as opportunities and regularly creates open space for discussions and dialogue. Enabling technology ProjectTogether has attempted to use digital community tools (both off-the-shelf and internally developed); however, these attempts have been unsuccessful. Instead, ProjectTogether finds that simple tools for connecting – e.g. Signal, Whatsapp and Slack – are more useful for missions. ProjectTogether also uses software for connecting and partnership management, such as MailerLite (newsletter distribution), Tally (form/survey distribution), Hubspot (customer relationship management), Zoom (meetings and webinars) and cloud-based document sharing infrastructure. Finally, ProjectTogether uses “no code/low code” solutions to connect existing solutions to each other to digitally support and automate processes and mission needs. ImpactSupporting infrastructure 3,000+ organizations from all areas of society integrated100,000 people in processes involved10+ missions carried out €20 million+ funding for missions and philanthropic funds secured80 ministries, state governments and muncipalities involved7 official partnerships with the federal government and ministries The Future is Collective: Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation 39