The Collective Impact Forum invites you to propose a session for the Virtual 2022 Collective Impact Action Summit on April 26-28, 2022.
Please submit your proposal using this online form by 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, November 11, 2021.
Please read the following information carefully before beginning your submission. You can also access a copy of the session nomination questions so that you can plan your responses before submitting in the online form by the deadline.
In order to make the Collective Impact Action Summit a more accessible and equitable event, we will be providing complimentary registration to all Summit speakers in 2022.
Visit our Online Submission Form
Summit Content Priorities
The 2022 Virtual Collective Impact Action Summit will be centered on how collective impact efforts can contribute to reconstructing existing systems so that they are more equitable and responsive to the needs of communities.
We recognize that your local context has likely changed given the intersecting crises facing many communities – COVID-19, a prolonged economic downturn, anti-Black racism, climate change, and others. We anticipate that your collaborative’s efforts have and will continue to involve responding to these crises, and working towards systems that will better serve those who have been historically most marginalized. As a result, across all of the sessions at the 2022 Collective Impact Action Summit, speakers should elevate the centrality of racial equity in these efforts.
Through a mix of session topics, session formats, and a variety of speakers, 2022 Collective Impact Action Summit participants will explore key topics related to reconstructing equitable systems through collective impact such as:
- Culture and Narrative Change: Influencing and changing the deeply held beliefs and assumptions that influence the stories that are told about individuals and communities, and the resulting actions that perpetuate inequities.
- Data and Learning: Using qualitative and quantitative data for continuous learning and decision-making in collective impact (e.g., understanding root causes; identifying shared measures; using shared measurement systems/platforms; disseminating and learning from data; evaluating the progress of collective impact work).
- Policy Change: Advocating for changes in federal/state/local legislation and policy, or changing organizational rules, regulations, priorities, or policies/procedures that have a disproportionately negative impact on populations that have been marginalized.
- Shifting Power and Connecting to Community: Authentically co-creating alongside those with lived experiences by ensuring that community members actively contribute to co-designing and co-leading a collective impact initiative.
- Sustaining Funding and Momentum: Identifying sustainable sources of funding for backbone infrastructure, and/or sustaining buy-in and momentum among collective impact partners over the long term.
Please indicate the intended audience for your session (e.g., funders, backbones, community members, and/or any audience), the target stage of collective impact for your session (e.g., not yet initiated, early stages of developing, mid stages of implementing, late stages of refining/sustaining), and how you will address equity in your session (e.g., describing how you are focusing on populations that have been marginalized in the development of your collaborative’s strategies or governance). Staff of the Collective Impact Forum will curate the 2022 Collective Impact Convening program.
Proposal Submission Instructions
You are invited to submit a session proposal for one of two different session formats:
- 75-minute how-to session: These concurrent sessions will focus on how-to “nuts and bolts” advice for collective impact leaders (e.g., how to evaluate collective impact, how to distribute leadership through working groups); maximum of 3 presenters, including moderator
- 60-minute tool session: These concurrent sessions will give attendees a chance to practice using a freely available concrete tool (e.g., actor mapping, data visualization, eco-cycle) that they can adapt for use in their own collective impact initiatives; maximum of 2 presenters
Note that sessions will take place at various points in the agenda from Tuesday afternoon (April 26) through Thursday morning (April 28), U.S. Eastern Time (New York).
To submit a proposal, please complete this form by 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, November 12, 2021.
Suggestions for Submitting a Strong Session Proposal
The Collective Impact Forum gives priority consideration to session proposals that demonstrate:
- Session design: your session allows attendees to hear from and interact with presenters and peers with varied virtual facilitation techniques (i.e., minimize virtual “panel discussions” with no time for participant interaction, consider using Zoom breakout room and live-polling, and other online collaboration tools]). In addition, you clearly state learning objectives for attendees to easily choose sessions that are most applicable to them.
- Speaker composition: your session brings together diverse points of view and experiences on a topic. Examples of diverse perspectives might include speakers who are people of color, people with disabilities, people who identify on the LGBTQIA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual) spectrum, and/or programming that promotes gender equity among speakers. In addition, we ask you to consider including community members who are involved with your initiative and/or are directly impacted by your initiative’s work in your session, as makes sense for the topic.
- Relevance of content: Your session presents ideas that provide practical, actionable insights for attendees. Your session also recognizes how current events affect individuals, organizations, and collective impact initiatives. This might include how your collaborative is responding to the short-term and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on racial disparities in outcomes, how you are revising your common agenda to advance systems change in new ways, or other approaches to adapt and meet your community’s needs as a collaborative during these tumultuous times.
- Equity: Your session describes how you are focusing on marginalized or oppressed populations in the development and implementation of your collaborative’s strategies or governance (e.g., you might share examples of how you made space for difficult conversations about race in your collective impact work, how you have focused on shifting power, how you have disaggregated data to better target your work, or how you have authentically included members of the community in the collaborative’s structures – particularly during periods of prolonged social distancing).
We are seeking proposals from both U.S. and non-U.S. contexts.
Please note: the Collective Impact Forum reserves the right to make adjustments or recommendations to final session designs, including speaker lineup, virtual session format, and description.
Additional Considerations
Comp Speaker Registration: The Collective Impact Forum will provide complimentary registration for all concurrent session speakers to attend the three-day virtual summit. Please wait to hear back on the status of your session proposal before you register to attend the virtual summit.
Lifting up Speakers from the Community: We encourage including community member voices on sessions when appropriate. We define “community members” as those who will be impacted by the collective impact initiative, and are participating in that capacity rather than as the employee of an organization that is part of the collective impact initiative. Session leaders are encouraged to consider providing an honorarium for community members who are speaking on their session.
Key Dates
- Tuesday, October 11, 2021: Call for session proposals is available online.
- Friday, November 12, 2021 (11:59 p.m. ET): All session proposals must be completed and submitted online.
- November 2021: Sessions under review.
- December 2021: Collective Impact Forum staff communicates session decisions. The point-of-contact for accepted proposals may receive session recommendations, as needed.
- January to February 2022: Session designers select final speakers and re-submit to Collective Impact Forum an updated speaker lineup and session description.
- March to April 2022: Session designers and speakers refine their sessions, with support from Collective Impact Forum staff.
- April 26-28, 2022: The Collective Impact Action Summit takes place virtually on April 26-28, 2022. On Monday, April 25, we will offer a funder-only pre-conference dialogue for those who primarily play a grantmaking role in collective impact.
If you have any questions or experience technical difficulties, please contact Tracy Timmons-Gray at tracy.timmons-gray@collectiveimpactforum.org.
Visit our Online Session Submission Form: Submit a 2022 Session
