As we close out the year, we want to share our gratitude with you—our community members—for your continued support and engagement of the Forum’s programs and resources.
Thank you to everyone who participated in a learning event this year—over 5,000 attendees joined us to learn and share together about working in long-term collaboration.
Thank you to everyone who accessed or shared a resource from the Forum’s free resource library, including downloading Collective Impact Forum podcast episodes over 20,000 times this year.
We know for many community members, the year ahead holds a lot of uncertainty. We will continue to work alongside you, providing resources, support, and opportunities to be in community with each other, so we all can keep learning together and working towards a brighter, more inclusive place for all.
As a look back from this year, please find below some of our most popular resources from 2024. There’s a bounty of learnings within, and we’re grateful to everyone who accessed, shared with a colleague, or used any of these resources from our library to support your own work.
We look forward to learning and working with you in 2025!
Gratefully yours,
The Collective Impact Forum team
Top Resources of 2024
Report
Backbone Leadership Is Different
Leading a collective impact initiative is different than leading a traditional organization.
The report, “Backbone Leadership Is Different: The Skills and Mindset Shifts Needed for Collective Impact,” authored by Dominique Samari and Paul Schmitz, draws from their observations partnering with and supporting dozens of collaboratives over the past 10 years.
Podcast
Exploring the Four Voices of Design to Solve Complex Problems
To learn more about human-centered design, we talked with Michelle Carrillo and Leslie Tergas of ThinkPlace West.
This podcast discussion explores using the “four voices of design” approach, and uplifts examples of how to use this approach within collective work. We also discuss how tools like “empathy interviews” can help draw out community voices so that one can get a deeper understanding of community members’ experiences, including what’s working and what’s not.
Video
When You Can’t Say Equity: Advancing Equity in an Anti-Equity Context
In this virtual office hour session from August, our team discussed advancing equity in contexts where there are direct challenges, answered audience questions, and provided insights and strategies that are showing promise in continuing to advance the work.
In the News
The Power of Place-Based Partnerships in the Fight for Equity
In a guest column for Inside Philanthropy, Jennifer Splansky Juster, Monique Miles, and Cindy Santos issue a call to action for philanthropy to support equity-focused place-based partnerships in increasingly challenging and polarized contexts.
In the column, they share interview findings about the impacts of the growing “anti-DEI” backlash, and the limitations and chilling effects that this backlash and recent court rulings have created for those who are doing equity work.
They call on funders to provide protection and continued funding for initiatives that are committed to advancing equitable outcomes, including for the most overlooked communities.
