Chapter 05 of 06
The rapid proliferation of incubators, accelerators, peer networks, mentors, and coaches supporting Christian entrepreneurs is encouraging — but the landscape remains small-scale and deeply fragmented.
Based on Faith Driven Entrepreneur Landscape Report, 2022
The landscape
Early-stage venture development
Growth-stage scaling support
Entrepreneur communities
1-on-1 guidance
Structured development
Faith-aligned funding
Each valuable individually. Collectively undercoordinated.
The vision
Faith Driven Entrepreneur Landscape Report, 2022
The collective attempt
Formed in 2019, Global Collab represents the most ambitious collective impact attempt in the faith-driven entrepreneur space. Their shared mission: "to see 1 million Christian entrepreneurs around the world inspired and equipped to bring redemptive impact."
To see 1 million Christian entrepreneurs around the world inspired and equipped to bring redemptive impact. This is the kind of audacious shared goal that the Kania-Kramer framework says is essential — specific enough to align effort, broad enough to accommodate diverse approaches.
The challenge: the capacity builders serving this mission are themselves relatively small-scale and fragmented. The Global Collab initiative exists to create the coordination layer — but building collective impact infrastructure is slow, unglamorous work.
Strategic alignment around shared mission
High engagement from participating organizations
Joint ownership of outcomes, not just inputs
Shared measurement systems (in progress)
Backbone organization with dedicated staff (needed)
Continuous cross-org communication cadence (emerging)
Case study
From CEF 2023: Mergon, Ziwani, Triga, TOL, and SAAD developed a 2x2 Collaboration Framework that maps the journey from awareness to joint ventures.
Understanding + Internal
Learning who exists, what they do, and where there might be overlap or complementarity. This is the foundation that most organizations skip — and then wonder why collaboration fails.
Understanding + External
Identifying specific opportunities where collaboration could produce outcomes that individual organizations cannot achieve alone. Mapping the white space between existing efforts.
Action + Internal
Aligning activities, sharing information, and reducing duplication. Operational coordination without full integration — each organization retains its identity while serving shared goals.
Action + External
Creating new shared initiatives that none could pursue alone. Shared risk, shared investment, shared outcomes. This is the deepest level — and the hardest to reach without trust built in earlier phases.
The mapping revealed trust barriers between complementary organizations — groups that should be natural partners but haven't built the relational infrastructure to collaborate.
The "understanding" phases (awareness building and opportunity mapping) are as vital as the "action" phases. Organizations that rush to joint ventures without laying groundwork fail.
A dedicated champion is essential to drive collaboration forward. Without someone whose primary role is facilitating the partnership, momentum dies within months.
The "understanding" phases are as vital as the "action" phases. Organizations that rush to joint ventures without laying relational groundwork discover that speed without trust produces fragile coalitions.
Key insight from the South African collaboration mapping, CEF 2023
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