Collective Impact Forum

A backbone’s role in a collective is often to facilitate collaboration among partners and help the group make progress toward a shared goal. This can be a complex challenge, as the backbone doesn’t hold formal authority...

How can a community shift their economic future? In this episode, we explore how communities heavily reliant on a single industry can come together to diversify and build a more resilient economy. This kind of...

Collaboratives based in the U.S. that are working to solve for and reduce disparities in their communities are facing compounding challenges with the current chaotic sociopolitical climate, including sudden funding...

Listening to community members and tapping into community expertise are key factors when trying to understand why social issues are happening, and what potential solutions may be best to address these challenges. This...

What are the skills and mindsets necessary to be a backbone leader for a collaborative? In this new podcast discussion, we talk with Paul Schmitz and Dominique Samari , authors of the recent report, “Backbone Leadership...

Companies can be a critical partner in collective impact work. However, working with companies can pose unique challenges, from understanding how to initiate these partnerships to understanding how to best partner to...

Achieving long-term change requires having government—whether local, state, or federal—at the collaborative table as a key partner. However, many collaboratives share that building these partnerships can be challenging...

Later this fall, Tamarack Institute’s Co-CEO Liz Weaver will retire, closing a chapter that includes many decades supporting community change, collective impact, and poverty-reduction work across Canada and beyond. Liz...

Last year, Independent Sector published research on how advocacy by the nonprofit sector has evolved over the last 25 years, and specifically, how it has severely declined, with only 31% of nonprofits reporting advocacy...

How can inclusive design spur community connections and build stronger partnerships in the process? During the COVID pandemic, the Van Alen Institute and the Urban Design Forum collaborated to launch Neighborhoods Now...

When building a collaborative strategy or working through your implementation plans, it might feel like what you need most is a crystal ball (or a mystically accurate Magic 8 ball) to reveal which activities will work...

Without proactively removing the structures and systems that have contributed to inequity, place-based collaboratives can not make a meaningful impact on the lives of those most excluded and underestimated in...

Navigating and managing change is key to a collaborative’s journey, but it’s also one of the most challenging as each partner’s relationship, personal history, and ability to participate in change can vary. Differences...

Addressing issues related to disability and access are often cordoned off within the social sector and philanthropy. Disability is often deemed as “separate” from issue-specific systems change work, such as education...

Understanding a community’s “context” and its readiness for complex change work is a critical factor for launching and advancing collective impact work. Knowing the local context is necessary to support work with and...