The members of a prospective collaborative have many important decisions to make together. Experienced funders said that clarity on these issues early on is essential for good relations and success. Every collaborative has distinctive goals and benchmarks against which it measures the outcomes of its own work. However, there are also common, agreed-upon indicators that say a lot about the collaborative itself and its successful functioning. This tool includes a guide to aid the start-up process, as well as a list that collaborative members can use to rate a collaborative’s success and open up a healthy conversation.

"Theory of Change Online or 'TOCO', is an accessible, easy-to-use learning tool for creating and implementing a Theory of Change. It provides users with a flexible drawing canvas for building, editing, and soliciting feedback."

The Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory is “a free online collaboration assessment. This tool will help you assess how your collaboration is doing on 20 research-tested success factors. When you complete this inventory, you will receive summary scores for each of these factors.