The Tamarack Institute is a registered Canadian charity dedicated to ending poverty in all its forms, for good. We support communities to enable true, long-term change.
This resource contains 20 useful websites for community and social impact leaders.
Twenty resources for Community and Social Impact Leaders
Our goal at the Tamarack Learning Centre is to bring you the latest thinking and practice in the area of community change. Below is a list of twenty websites that the Tamarack Learning Centre Team frequently accesses to discover new tools, approaches and methods. This is a starting point for community change leaders and not an exhaustive list.
Please share with us, your go-to websites and the resources that you check out frequently. Let’s build this list together! Email us at tamarack@tamarackcommunity.ca.
Network Websites
- The Tamarack Institute
This is Tamarack’s website home and is full of tools and resources about collaboration, community engagement, community innovation, collective leadership and evaluating impact. You can also access progress reports and information about community change efforts across Canada that focus on ending poverty, building youth futures, climate transitions and building belonging.
- Collective Impact Forum
The Collective Impact Forum website contains a wealth of case studies, collective impact tools, opportunities to learn through webinars and podcasts and access to workshops and online learning. Whether you are new to collective impact or a seasoned practitioner, this website will guide your learning journey. - Network Weaver
June Holley has an amazing ability to find and weave together solutions and approaches which are designed to advance network outcomes. This website contains a wealth of new thinking, approaches and tools in key strategic areas of network design and development. - Collaboration for Impact
Our partners, Collaboration for Impact support community engagement and collective impact efforts across Australia. The CFI Resource Hub (found on the website) contains a wealth of case studies and innovative practice and leadership approaches on the topics of systems change, deep collaboration and more which are informing community change efforts in Australia and beyond. - Inspiring Communities
Inspiring Communities advances community-led development across Aotearoa New Zealand. Their practice and approach deeply embed community voice at the centre of their work. Their website includes case studies, access to podcasts and learning sessions, and tools and resources which advance the core principles of community voice and community-led development. - Place Matters
Place Matters is an emerging collaborative initiative in the UK which focuses on the importance of place-based collaborative work. The website contains practice stories and case studies as well as tools and resources to guide place-based collaborative efforts. - Collective Change Lab
The Collective Change Lab has the goal of transforming systems towards equity and justice. The Collective Change Lab resources include approaches to storytelling, systems change and systems leadership, and collective impact. - FITO Network
The FITO Network is a global network of change leaders and practitioners. Participating in the annual FITO Network Festival is an outstanding opportunity to meet colleagues from across the globe, learn and practice new and emerging engagement strategies and have fun. If you are interested in building your global network, the FITO Network is a great starting point. - Social Innovation Canada
Social Innovation Canada is a partner organization to Tamarack. The aim of SI Canada is to ensure that innovation works for everyone. Their website resources focus on four key themes, supporting innovation through tools and evidence-based practice; discovering how innovation is used to scale change; connecting across social innovation leaders; and transforming systems through social innovation and sustainable outcomes.
Tool and Resources Websites
- CoCreative Consulting
The CoCreative team focuses on systems change through collaborative innovation. The website contains a tools page for organizations and collaboratives addressing complex challenges. CoCreative is well known for accessible and informative tools and the four agendas are an example of an approach that can improve collaborative outcomes. - Liberating Structures
Working collaboratively to address complex community challenges can be daunting. The Liberating Structures website provides advice and approaches to facilitating conversations and moving groups forward. There are 33 different tools and techniques as well as detailed facilitation guides for each of these tools. This is a website not to be missed.
- Systems Innovation
The Systems Innovation website is a collaborative space with the purpose of building the world’s capacity around systems practices and innovations. Tools such as mapping the eco-system are easy to use and adaptable across many different community change contexts. - Session Lab
Session Lab is a website for those of you who design, facilitate and deliver workshops and learning content. There are useful approaches to curriculum design. The web app or platform also contains a library of facilitation tools and techniques drawn from a wide variety of organizations and websites. - NESTA
NESTA UK weaves together social innovation practices with useful design canvases that can address collaboration challenges. The DIY Toolkit contains a variety of planning canvases that address the key dilemmas faced by collaborations and is often recommended by the Tamarack team. - Collaborate CIC
The Collaborate website and team focuses on practices that improve collaborative and collective outcomes. While many of the resources support and encourage the engagement of local government, the resources are also applicable to improving outcomes for place-based or community-based efforts. - Bridgespan
Bridgespan is a US-based consulting firm that works within a global context. The Bridgespan resource library has a wide range of case studies, tools, approaches and new thinking. Recently, the Bridgespan team researched the critical role of field catalysts in advancing community and collective change efforts. - FSG
The driver of FSG is to reimagine social change. The FSG work explores a variety of social change perspectives including the important role of philanthropy and business in social change efforts. They have led thinking around the rollout of collective impact across the globe. FSG continues to provide useful tools and resources which address the opportunities and challenges of social change and impact efforts. - Gamestorming
This is an essential website resource for workshop facilitators and community change leaders. The Gamestorming website contains tools, techniques and resources for facilitating change in a fun and engaging way. - Urban Institute
The Urban Institute weaves together data and stories to advance community change efforts. The Data Walk approach is an incredibly useful tool for engaging community partners in conversations about data and the impact of data to inform community change efforts. - Better Evaluation
Better Evaluation is a go-to website resource for evaluation tools, techniques and applications. The website includes sections to help you get started on your evaluation journey, contains evaluation frameworks and guides, and provides methods, tools and resources to inform your evaluation experience.
