Build Your Community

A roadmap and a set of open and accessible tools to grow a community of committed actors.

Who are you?

The toolkit can be useful for:

Organisations willing to open collaborative learning spaces.
Organisations willing to improve their already existing spaces through the collaboration with new actors and communities within a shared learning framework.
Universities, Higher Education Institutions and training institutions willing to innovate their training tools and methods with the interaction with collaborative communities.

3 | Organize

1 | A - Identify actors and leaders related to your topic
You can use the Actors Map tool or the Openness tool to map actors and leaders, as well as the relationships between them.

2 | A - Identify and map potential stakeholders and users
You can use this stakeholder mapping tool, as well as this tool to identify your target groups’ characteristics.

3 | A - Co-define the role, functions and relations in your team and with stakeholders
You can follow this guide (page 20-21) to assemble the team, and the Entity Portrait tool to create a picture of the stakeholders’ context. Manage and monitor the relations with your community.

1 | B - Analyse the Context, understand the needs and define the Objectives
You can implement a preparatory research, organise secondary data research and frame the system you are going to influence.

2 | B - Meet and listen to stakeholders to validate the context and needs analysis
You can follow the “Sensing Journey” indications to do this and look at this set of tools to engage stakeholders.

3 | B - Co-define the impact within the community
Predefine with your team aspects related to the space, services and activities/tools. It’s the moment to formalize your final Value Proposition. You can use the Value Proposition canvas of the Systemic Design Toolkit to work on it.

1 | C - Define a preliminary Vision and draft your Theory of Change
The “why” (Vision) is related to the “added value” you want to bring with your own initiative. The “how” (Theory of Change) describes the logic of your intervention.

2 | C - Reinforce your vision by sharing and discussing it with stakeholders to reach alignment
You can follow this guide (page 22) for the kick-off meeting with stakeholders, and map values using this tool.

3 | C - Strategy, Planning, Management
Work with your team on the first draft of Business Model, using the Business Model Canvas.

Learn more

1 | Understand

1 | A - Identify actors and leaders related to your topic
You can use the Actors Map tool to map actors and leaders, as well as the relationships between them.

1 | B - Analyse the Context, understand the needs and define the Objectives
You can implement a preparatory research, organise secondary data research and frame the system you are going to influence.

1 | C - Define a preliminary Vision and draft your Theory of Change
The “why” (Vision) is related to the “added value” you want to bring with your own initiative. The “how” (Theory of Change) describes the logic of your intervention.

Learn more

2 | Interact

2 | A - Identify and map potential stakeholders and users
You can use this stakeholder mapping tool, as well as this tool to identify your target groups’ characteristics.

2 | B - Meet and listen to stakeholders to validate the context and needs analysis
You can follow the “Sensing Journey” indications to do this and look at this set of tools to engage stakeholders.

2 | C - Reinforce your vision by sharing and discussing it with stakeholders to reach alignment
You can follow this guide (page 22) for the kick-off meeting with stakeholders, and map values using this tool.

Learn more

3 | Organize

3 | A - Co-define the role, functions and relations in your team and with stakeholders
You can follow this guide (page 20-21) to assemble the team, and the Entity Portrait tool to create a picture of the stakeholders’ context.

3 | B - Co-define the impact within the community
Predefine with your team aspects related to the space, services and activities/tools. It’s the moment to formalize your final Value Proposition. You can use the Value Proposition canvas of the Systemic Design Toolkit to work on it.

3 | C - Strategy, Planning, Management
Work with your team on the first draft of Business Model, using the Business Model Canvas.

Learn more

Communication

Starting from your Vision, define a preliminary Abstract of your project, to be used for Communication and Community Engagement.

Create, with stakeholders, a shared and clear identity of the space and its community. Then, design a Brand identity and its core values.

Snowball effect engagement and nurturing your first followers: in order to disseminate your idea and find new relevant stakeholders, ask each participant to recommend others from their network, and nurture your first followers to set the base for the creation of a movement.

Once you have a clearer idea of your audience set a tone to communicate on different channels (social media, newsletter, press releases) to differentiate them and show different aspects of your initiative.

Business Model

You can start redacting a first draft of Business Model (BM), following these easy steps.

At this stage not everything can be defined yet.
Start pre-defining your Value proposition, Target audience, Resources, Activities, Partners, Channels, Customer relationships.

Don’t worry if you cannot fill all the boxes or if something is still unclear! Keep in mind that this is an iterative process: you will improve and refine your BM in the following project phases, using this first draft as a starting tool to share your idea with peers and community.

Governance

If you want to engage members in governance and get real participation you have to define clear roles and functions.
First ask yourself some basic questions:

What role do you expect engaged stakeholders to have in the governance of your initiative?
Will they be directly involved in the management?
Do you need a more hierarchical or more horizontal organization?
Will stakeholders be able to share their opinions and take part in the decision-making process on a regular basis?
Are all stakeholders going to become members?
How will internal communication work?

The answers to these questions will guide you in defining your approach to governance.

Then you have to structure your organization. Some aspects to be taken into consideration are:

How to assign roles (delegate responsibility to individuals)
How to distribute power (enable people to take decisions and act) and what are the related limits and constraints
Definition of the decision-making process
Design of the internal information flow

Based on these elements you will be able to define the actual rules that will govern your activities.
That could include a presidency, a board of directors, an advisory board, rules about voting, rules about membership,a code of ethics, as well as other internal structures and regulations.

You can use the Community Toolkit Governance map to define these elements.
For more information and inspiration about this topic check Governance: an introduction by Co-ops UK and Sociocracy 3.0 | Effective Collaboration At Any Scale

Legal form

Legislation about business forms varies depending on the country.
Parameters you need to take into consideration:

Country legal framework
How many people are involved in the initiative and how (investor, worker, associate, volunteer, etc.)?
Are partners and members always the same or rather they do change with time?
What is the level of community involvement in activities of the organisation? How is this reflected in its legal form?
How are you going to regulate membership?
Which legal form available in your country better suits your intentions?

If you want to found a cooperative enterprise you can count on the support of local federations to navigate the legal aspects and access to training and facilitations. Have a look at the list of members of Cooperatives Europe to find an organisation near you.