The Collective Impact Forum invites you to submit a session proposal for the Virtual 2024 Collective Impact Action Summit on April 30-May 2, 2024.
Please submit your proposal via this online form by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, October 30, 2023.
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.
In order to make the Collective Impact Action Summit a more accessible and equitable event, we will be providing complimentary registration for the full event to all Summit speakers in 2024.
Visit our Online Submission Form
Action Summit Content Priorities
The 2024 Collective Impact Action Summit will elevate practical advice and examples of what it takes for communities to strengthen collaboration, advance equity, and improve lives.
To help highlight these examples, submissions for the Action Summit will focus on the five strategies that support centering equity within collective impact, as shared in the article, “Centering Equity in Collective Impact.”
While we recognize that these five equity strategies are interconnected, session submissions should choose one of the five strategies below to highlight and go deeper on in your session, in order to make the lessons and application specific during a limited session presentation.
- Ground the work in data and context, and target solutions: How has your effort used quantitative and qualitative data to more deeply understand inequities that exist in your community? How has an understanding of the historical and current context contributing to inequity influenced your initiative’s work? How has your initiative targeted solutions for specific marginalized populations, based on a deeper understanding of the data and context?
- Focus on systems change, in addition to programs and services: How has your collective work focused on creating systems change? (e.g., Focusing on changing policy, shifting resources, changing mental models, pursuing narrative change.) How have you woven systems change and programmatic strategies together into your collaborative’s work? Note: Related to this strategy, the Forum is especially looking for examples of: public policy changes and advocacy efforts to support your collective goals; narrative change work to support mindset shifts on an issue.
- Shift power within the collaborative: How has your collective shifted or shared power amongst those engaged in the collaborative’s work, so those most affected by your core issue are key decision-makers, drivers, and designers of the solutions? What has that power shift looked like? What changes have you seen?
- Listen to and act with community. How has your collective acted with community members (i.e., families, friends, neighbors) most connected to your issue area? How has your relationship with your community changed? How has this influenced your work?
- Build equity leadership and accountability: How has your collective focused on building leadership skills for embedding equity practices in the collective’s work? How have you built-in and maintained equity accountability within your work? Where have you seen the most growth, trust, and progress?
What experiences with these strategies do you want to share?
At the Action Summit, we want to hear how these equity strategies are incorporated into your collective workAs you prepare your session proposal, the following prompts can help you consider possible areas of focus in your presentation. (Note: You do not need to directly answer all of these questions, but we will look for sessions that speak to these types of reflections)
- What’s been helpful? What’s been challenging?
- What has your collective learned through the process? What changes have you made along the way? What has your journey centering these equity strategies been like?
- What progress and results (community or systems-level) have you seen, especially for those most affected by inequity?
- What recommendations would you share for others hoping to learn and bring these practices into their own work?
Along with your equity strategy focus, please indicate:
- 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
- what population-level or systems changes have you seen as your work has progressed.
Proposal Submission Information
You are invited to submit a session proposal for one of three formats listed below. If you wish to submit a topic for multiple formats, please fill out a form for each submission.
1) 60-minute how-to session: These concurrent sessions will focus on how-to “nuts and bolts” advice for collective impact leaders (e.g., how to build trust and capacity around sharing data, how to build and support accountability across partners; how to shift mental models around a key issue ); maximum of 4 presenters, including moderator.
2) 60-minutes Tools and Techniques session: These concurrent sessions should provide attendees a chance to practice using a specific tool or technique (e.g., actor mapping, data visualization, eco-cycle, liberating structures techniques, accessible community meeting facilitation practices) that they can adapt for use in their own collective impact initiatives. All tools highlighted at the Action Summit must be available for free, rather than proprietary tools only for purchase or subscription; maximum of 2 presenters, including moderator.
3) 30-Minute “Stories of Change” Spotlight Talks sessions: These concurrent sessions should focus on telling a specific story of change or spotlighting a specific concept that has seen progress in your work. (e.g. How a collaborative added a significant number of housing units to a region; how a collective increased voter turn-out to support the central goal of the work; how an initiative garnered multiple funding streams to support long-term change efforts.) The story or talk should demonstrate progress made on the issue. The format will be 20 minutes for the story/presentation and 10 minutes for audience Q&A; maximum of 2 presenters.
Session Date and Times: Please note that sessions will take place at various points in the agenda from Tuesday (April 30, 2024) through Thursday (May 2, 2024), between 12pm – 5pm U.S. Eastern Time (New York). We are unable to accommodate sessions during other times of day.
To submit a proposal, please complete this form by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, October 30, 2023.
Suggestions for Submitting a Strong Session Proposal
The Collective Impact Forum gives priority consideration to session proposals that demonstrate:
Clear Session Objective and Design: You clearly state learning objectives for attendees so they know what to expect. In addition, your session allows attendees to hear from and interact with presenters and peers with varied virtual facilitation techniques, as well as have time for questions. Sessions will be held over Zoom, and will be in the main room only. (No small breakouts groups.)
Speaker composition: Your session brings together a variety of points of view and experiences on a topic. Examples of perspectives from a variety of backgrounds could 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 amongst speakers.
Elevating 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.
Relevance of content: Your session provides practical, actionable insights for attendees who are engaging in collective impact and other forms of collaboration/coalition work. The Action Summit audience appreciates practical, real life examples of what you’ve learned, what worked for you and your collaborative and what didn’t work, and what lessons they could take with them back to their communities.
Understanding the Action Summit audience: The majority of the Action Summit audience are folks engaging in collective impact and other forms of complex collaboration to advance a social change issue. The majority are nonprofit practitioners, followed by government/public partners, and others partnering to support the work. Approximately 10% of the audience are funders who support collaborative efforts. Audience members are working on a range of issues, from education to health to homelessness to workforce development. What connects the audience members is their interest in practical recommendations and real-life examples of how to better work together in order to advance their collective work to reach their goals.
Sharing Learnings and Not Selling Services: Sessions that focus on or have an undercurrent of selling/highlighting products or services will not be selected. This can include selling books, software, or professional services.
Geographic Reach: We are seeking proposals from both within and outside of the United States. We highly encourage practitioners from outside of the United States to submit a proposal. Please Note our timezone, and that sessions will be held from 12pm – 5pm Eastern (US: New York).
Please note: The Collective Impact Forum may make recommendations to selected proposals to ensure that sessions align with the proposal guidelines and requirements and meet the needs of those who will attend the Summit.
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 registering to attend.
Key Dates
- Wednesday, September 13, 2023: Call for session proposals launch. (Apply for the Call for Sessions)
- Monday, October 30, 2023 (11:59 p.m. ET): All session proposals must be completed and submitted online.
- November 2023: Sessions under review.
- December 2023: Collective Impact Forum staff communicates session decisions to those who submitted.
- Friday, January 26, 2024: Session designers select final speakers and re-submit an updated speaker lineup and session description to the Collective Impact Forum.
- February to April 2024: Session designers and speakers refine their sessions, with support from Collective Impact Forum staff.
- Tuesday, April 30 – Thursday, May 2, 2024: The Collective Impact Action Summit takes place virtually.
If you have any questions or experience technical difficulties, please contact Tracy Timmons-Gray at tracy.timmons-gray@collectiveimpactforum.org.
