When BHP Foundation invited us five years ago to build Ampliseed, a network connecting landscape-scale environmental resilience projects around the world, we were initially looking to build stronger projects, clearer strategies, better data.

What we found alongside all that was the deeper lesson that emerged from every experience, interview, survey and conversation:

Relationships are a form of critical infrastructure.

Relationships move ideas, trust and commitment through a system in the same way roads move goods or broadband moves information. Without strong relationships, even the best funded efforts can hit a dead end.

Download our full report Seeds to Systems: Building and Nurturing Networks for Lasting Impact below for in-depth insights, or read on for a 3-minute overview.

“All of our work is founded on relationships… how we stay connected, build trust and learn together while tackling some of the world’s most complex challenges.” – Ariadne Gorring, Co-CEO, Pollination Foundation 

Pilot to Proof

In 2019, seven large-scale initiatives, scattered across four continents, agreed to test a simple hypothesis: connect practitioners across places and cultures to see if peer learning accelerates impact. Five years, two pandemics and 157 active members later, the results are in. 

• On average, 90 % of practitioners said the network reduced professional isolation and helped them adapt innovations faster. 
• Multiple teams applied scaling strategies, social network analysis, shared M&E frameworks and story-powered data techniques they first encountered in the network’s working groups. 
• Projects across the globe secured domestic policy traction after presenting as a unified delegation – alliances that were only possible because the relationships were already in place. 

These outcomes didn’t hinge on a single training module or grant. They hinged on cultivated relationships – the infrastructure you can’t see on a balance sheet. 

Ampliseed in Moyobamba, Peru. © Bill Salazar

Three pillars of relational infrastructure

1. Face-to-face immersion
   Our most valuable learning moments began where WiFi ended: in remote journeys to the red sands of Uluru or deep in Peru’s tropical forests. Travelling together pushed us out of presentation mode and into connection mode. (See In person gathering stories on p.20 of the report.)  
2. A resourced backbone
   Relationships don’t self-organise at scale. At Ampliseed, a small facilitation team curated topics for working groups; facilitated meetings; handled visas, simultaneous interpretation and risk assessments for in-person gatherings; and managed endless scheduling challenges to connect people across 12 time-zones. Think of this as maintenance for the road network – unseen but indispensable. 
3. A “culture first” operating system
   Every in-person gathering was deeply reooted with local place-based protocols, putting Indigenous knowledge at the heart rather than the margins. Intentional choices like this flipped traditional power dynamics: external experts became learners, and cultural custodians became teachers. A flow-on effect was deeper trust and faster problem-solving across the network. 

Ampliseed member field trip to the flooded forest in community-run Tingana Conservation Reserve, Peru,to discuss local enterprise. ©Bill Salazar

Why funders should care

Infrastructure hardware attracts investment because it lowers transaction costs and multiplies returns. Relational infrastructure does the same: 

• Risk mitigation – Trusted peer review can surface red flags in project plans before they reach the boardrooms. 
• Policy leverage – Decision-makers are more likely to support initiatives voiced by a credible coalition than by isolated actors. 
• Faster diffusion of innovation – Successful new models piloted in one landscape can quickly travel to others within months. 

In other words, “return-on-relationship” (RoR) has a significant impact on the bottom line of your return-on-investment (ROI). 

Dessert rain © Pollination Foundation

How to build relationships, wherever you work

Beyond conservation

Although the Ampliseed learning and leadership network focused on conservation, these lessons aren’t limited to coral reefs or rainforests. Any organisation tackling complex, place-based challenges (circular economies, community health, climate adaptation, for example) needs relational infrastructure as desperately as it needs capital flows. The World Bank’s communities of practice toolkit, Stanford’s systems leadership research and the OECD’s collective impact evaluations all share the same conclusion: change moves at the speed of trust. 

Ready for a deep dive?

Our new learning paper, “Seeds to Systems: Building & Nurturing Networks for Lasting Impact,” unpacks five years of data, stories and practical advice – including a Theory of Change (p. 12) and an impact model you can adapt straight away (p. 14). Download the full report below. 

“The knowledge is in the network.”  

Invest in your network, and watch the system shift. 

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