Ecosystem Mapping: A Tool to Strengthen Systems and Impact

Ecosystem mapping is an excellent tool for those taking a systems or network approach in their work. Whether you aim to improve community health, education, and other social issues, you will benefit by understanding the systems influencing your approach. By visually understanding how the entities within the system are interconnected, interdependent, and interacting, you can identify ways to shift the system towards improved and more equitable outcomes. Learn more about ecosystem mapping and get started below.

What is Ecosystem Mapping?

Today in the world of social impact, we know that systems thinking is critically important for achieving goals. To address an issue like homelessness, it’s now necessary to consider the larger system effects that help create and reinforce the problem. You may work with those involved in education, healthcare and mental health, substance abuse issues and more to find systemic ways you can collaboratively address homelessness.

Ecosystem mapping involves creating a map of the interconnections between all the people, organizations, ideas, and other factors that impact your problem. It can help you understand the interactions between different issues and sectors to find new opportunities for action and impact. It draws heavily from the fields of network science and system dynamics.

Get Started with our Canva Ecosystem Map Template

Ecosystem mapping can be difficult for beginners. To make things easier, we put together an ecosystem mapping template on Canva – a free graphic design program that’s easy to use. Just fill out the form, and we’ll send you an access link to make your ecosystem map using our template. It includes a sample map to show you some of the ways you can visualize and categorize entities and connections in an ecosystem. When finished, you can export it as a PDF to share.

Get Access to our Free Ecosystem Map Template!

We will send you a link to access the template and make a copy in your own Canva account; it is easy to setup a free account if you do not have one.

What Can You Learn Through Ecosystem Mapping?

Explore the Structure of Connections

Dig into the way the parts of your ecosystem interconnect. Discover new ways to structure your connections to change ecosystem flows and interaction.

Measure the Quality of Connections

Use our validated measures for trust and value, along with traditional network science metrics to track how your relationships change over time.

Connect Multiple
System Levels

Map multi-level ecosystems at the individual, sub-system and complete ecosystem levels to identify how each level impacts and affects the others.

Identify
Key Leverage Points

Identify key nodes with significant influence on the rest of the ecosystem so you can leverage them intentionally to improve and reach goals.

How Does It Work in Practice?

Ecosystem mapping can be done quite simply using a pen and paper to identify connections. However, it is more effective using innovative tools like the PARTNER Platform. It uses validated trust and value metrics, along with standard network science measures, to help you map and analyze your ecosystem connections more quantitatively. With options for tracking and integrating systems at multiple levels, it’s a flexible, powerful tool for ecosystem mapping.