The Collective Impact Forum invites you to submit a proposal to host a session at the virtual 2025 Collective Impact Action Summit on April 29-May 1, 2025.
Proposals can be submitted via this online form by 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, November 1, 2024. Before you begin, please read the following information carefully.
You can also access a copy of the session nomination questions so that you can plan your responses before submitting in the online form.
To make the Collective Impact Action Summit a more accessible and equitable event, we will provide complimentary registration for the full event to all Summit presenters.
Visit the Online Submission Form
Action Summit Content Priorities
The 2025 Collective Impact Action Summit will elevate practical strategies, guidance, and examples of what it takes for communities to strengthen collaboration, advance equity, and improve lives.
We are looking to highlight best practices, recommendations, and real life collaborative examples that connect to specific “practices” as shared in the list below. These practices will serve as the priorities for the Summit’s breakout sessions.
While we recognize that these practices are interconnected, we ask that you choose one practice in your submission to highlight and focus on in your session, in order to make the lessons and application specific during a limited timeframe.
It is our belief that advancing equity is part of every practice area, so we encourage you to consider how equity is centered in whichever practice area you are sharing.
Content Priority Areas:
Collaborative Practices: Supporting how we work better together. Some examples are:
- Meeting planning and facilitation
- Bringing partners from different fields/sectors to work together
- Navigating conflict
- Goal-setting and sustaining partners through long-term work
Community Engagement Practices: Partnering and leading with the communities most connected to your collaborative’s work. Some examples are:
- Building the capacity of collaborative partners to meaningfully engage community in goal-setting and co-design
- Building the capacity of community members to meaningfully engage in goal-setting and co-design
- Ensuring accountability by gathering feedback and implementing feedback loops with community
- Building and sharing community power and co-leading with community members
- Effective communications to inform the broader community about the collaborative’s work
Data and Learning Practices: Using data and research to support shared learning and evaluation. Some examples are:
- Weaving data into storytelling
- Sharing data in accessible formats for different audiences
- Using data to identify, inform, and target strategies to address the needs of specific populations
- Supporting a strong data and learning culture within the collaborative
- Equitable evaluation practices
Leadership Practices: Supporting and strengthening collaborative leadership. Some examples are:
- Building and strengthening leadership skills across the collaborative or with the backbone team
- Supporting a strong and transparent culture of accountability and co-ownership of the work
- Supporting the collaborative to navigate change and work through ambiguity
- Leading “from behind” to help bring the whole collaborative forward
Relationship Practices: Navigating the relational aspects of collaborative work. Some examples are:
- Embedding relationship-building as a core component of the collaborative infrastructure
- Building, sustaining, and/or repairing trust amongst partners and constituents
- Bridging and connecting across divides to commit to a shared goal
- Understanding how the role of trauma and healing can be part of the collaborative process
Systems Change Practices: Prioritizing systems change work as part of your collaborative’s actions. Some examples are:
- Supporting and participating in policy changes (local, state, federal, etc) to advance your collaborative’s goal
- Shifting resources to better align with the community’s priorities
- Contributing to narrative change that influences and changes perceptions and understanding of the issue the collaborative is working on and the people impacted
- Understanding who is part of the system you are working to shift, how your collaborative connects to other work in the community, and how to strengthen relationships with the broader system
What experiences with these practices do you want to share?
At the Action Summit, we want to hear how you have incorporated specific practices into pursuing the strategies of your collective work.
As 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 these questions, but we will look for sessions that speak to these types of reflections.)
- Based on your collaborative’s experience with this specific practice, what lessons learned do you want to share with others? What do you recommend (or not recommend?)
- What’s been helpful? What’s been challenging?
- As you worked through this practice, have you made changes along the way? What surprises have arisen as you have done your work?
- What progress and results (community or systems-level) have you seen, especially for those most affected by inequity?
Along with your specific practice area, please indicate the population-level or systems changes you have achieved through your work.
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 format desired.
1) 60-minute How-to Session: These concurrent sessions will focus on how-to “nuts and bolts” advice for collective impact leaders related to the practice area you are focusing on; maximum of 4 presenters, including moderator/session lead.
2) 60-minutes Tools and Techniques session: These concurrent sessions should connect to your specific practice area and provide attendees a chance to practice using a specific tool or technique (e.g., actor mapping, data walks, eco-cycle, liberating structures techniques, accessible community meeting facilitation practices) that they can adapt for use in their own collective impact initiatives. All tools and techniques 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 connect to your practice area while focusing on telling a specific story of change or spotlighting a specific concept that has seen progress in your work. The story or talk should demonstrate progress made on the issue. The format will be 20 minutes for the story 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 29, 2025) through Thursday (May 1, 2025), 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 Friday, November 1, 2024.
Suggestions for Submitting a Strong Session Proposal
The Collective Impact Forum gives priority consideration to session proposals that demonstrate:
Clear Session Objective, Design, and Learning Question: You clearly state learning objectives for attendees so they know what to expect. You can sum up your session’s purpose in a single learning question. (How do you do XYZ? What can you learn when you do XYZ? Etc.) Your session design allows attendees to hear from and interact with presenters and/or peers, 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. They are focused on “the How” of better collaboration.
Your collective has been active for over a year and has results to share: It’s important that your collaborative effort has results to share about how you are progressing toward your goals and that the specific “practice” you uplift has been implemented by the group. We will prioritize submissions from collaboratives that have been actively working for over 12 months, or started prior to November 2023. We encourage collaboratives that are not yet formally launched or have not been active for a year to consider submitting for a future Summit.
Focus on what change has happened; Don’t just share the story of your organization: We encourage you to steer away from presenting the “everything’s perfect” story or case study about your organization or collaborative. Focus on the change you, your collaborative, and your community has worked towards and experienced. What has worked, what hasn’t, and what do you want to share to help others on a similar path?
Understanding the Action Summit audience: The majority of the Action Summit audience are engaging in collective impact and other forms of collaboration to advance a social change issue. The majority are nonprofit practitioners, followed by government/public partners, and others partnering to support the work. 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 and 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 like consulting or coaching.
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 each day 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 attending 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.
Key Dates
- Wednesday, September 18, 2024: Call for session proposals launch. (Apply for the Call for Sessions)
- Friday, November 1, 2024 (11:59 p.m. ET): All session proposals must be completed and submitted online.
- November 2024: Sessions under review.
- By December 20, 2024: Collective Impact Forum staff communicates session decisions to those who submitted.
- Friday, January 24, 2025: Session designers select final speakers and re-submit an updated speaker lineup and session description to the Collective Impact Forum.
- February to April 2025: Session designers and speakers refine their sessions, with support from Collective Impact Forum staff as needed.
- Tuesday, April 29 – Thursday, May 1, 2025: 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.
