Backbone and Governance

During the past month, many of us have had our lives and livelihoods completely upended. We have been forced…

One of the most common questions we hear from collective impact practitioners is how to raise the funds needed…

Building a steering committee or leadership team for a collective impact initiative can feel high stakes. When done well,…

As we reflect on 2016, we want to share four key areas that stood out for the Collective Impact…

Backbone organizations are unusual entities and that means they need unusual boards too. Board members of organizations responsible for…

Over the past two months, we published seven interviews with experienced backbone leaders. Although we approached these interviews with…

This is the last of our blog series Conversations with Experienced Backbone Leaders. We sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed the…

Hello CI enthusiasts! This is our sixth in a series of interviews with experienced backbone leaders. In this chat,…

We hope you’re enjoying our conversations with experienced backbone leaders. In this installment, we had the pleasure of sitting…

Here at the Forum we’ve been having amazing discussions about equity in collective impact. As part of the discussion…

Our conversation series with experienced backbone leaders continues with a conversation with Kat Allen, co-chair of Communities that Care…

This is the second in our conversation series with experienced backbone leaders. (see this blog post describing the series.)In…

Welcome to the first in a series of conversations with experienced backbone leaders! (see this blog post describing the…

Summer is upon us, and in the U.S. the weather is hot, and the days long. I spent my…

A closer look at the diversity of collective impact efforts reveals a diversity of backbone infrastructure designs as well.…

We talk a lot about the importance of a backbone organization in collective impact, but moving from the conceptual…

Funders often wear many hats in collective impact efforts, from convening partners to funding the infrastructure needed to guide…

Do you need some ideas for facilitating an ice-breaker among community leaders who have not previously met before? Have…

What makes collective impact steering committee meetings a priority for leaders who juggle myriad commitments? In my opinion, F-words…

Forming a steering committee and creating a common agenda is hard work.  I know this from personal experience of…