Learning Lab Dates and Times
- Session 1: September 16, 2026, 1pm – 4pm ET
- Session 2: September 30, 2026, 1pm – 4pm ET
- Session 3: October 13 or 14, 2026, 1pm – 2:30pm ET (Group Coaching. Attendees opt in to the day that works for them.)
- Session 4: October 28, 2026, 1pm – 4pm ET
Interested in joining the Learning Lab? Sign up for our Early Registration Alert and be notified when registration launches.
Sign-Up to be notified when Early Access Registration Launches.
ABOUT THE BACKBONE LEADERS LEARNING LAB
Are you a leader in a place-based collaborative or playing a backbone role? If so, this Learning Lab is for you!
Backbone leaders play one of the most critical – and often least understood – roles in collaborative, place-based work. You hold the group’s focus on its north star, nurture trust, keep partners aligned, and help communities make meaningful progress on complex challenges.
In today’s environment, backbone leaders are navigating a range of challenges – such as an unpredictable political climate, uncertain funding, and the tension between addressing urgent community needs and stewarding long-term strategic work.
Yet despite how critical this role is, backbone leaders rarely have access to spaces designed specifically for their unique needs, pressures, and leadership realities.
Join the Collective Impact Forum’s Backbone Leaders Learning Lab to meet this need.
This program brings together leaders for skill building, coaching, and peer learning. It offers a rare chance to take a pause, reground in your purpose, and strengthen your practice.
Register to be notified when Early Registration launches
Why This Learning Lab and Why Now?
Backbone work is essential to the success of collaborative work, and it is also hard. It is relational, strategic, and requires skillful navigation. And it is often lonely, especially when you are one of the few people in your community holding this role.
This Learning Lab exists so you don’t have to make sense of this work alone.
Peer spaces designed specifically for backbone leaders are rare, and this program offers what you need to lead, including:
- Practical tools to advance systems change
- A clearer understanding of the backbone role and how to execute it effectively
- Strategies for navigating uncertainty and how to move forward
- Greater confidence in sustaining long-term collaborative work
- A nationwide peer network of people doing similar work
- A renewed sense of purpose, energy, and grounding
Program Structure and Faculty
The Learning Lab combines training, practical tools, peer learning, and coaching.
The experience is anchored in four interactive virtual sessions, each including a mix of instruction, reflection, and small-group peer learning.
Learning Lab space is intentionally limited to 25 participants per cohort to create an intimate, high-touch learning environment. The cohort will meet on September 16, September 30, October 28, and have optional small group coaching sessions on either October 13 or 14.
Learning Lab Faculty: Jennifer Splansky Juster, Executive Director, Collective Impact Forum; Courtney W. Robertson, Director of Programs and Partnerships, Collective Impact Forum.
Who Should Attend? This program is ideal for:
- Individuals playing or supporting the backbone role
- Leaders of emerging or established place-based collaborations (e.g., collective impact, multi-sector collaborations, place-based partnerships)
- Practitioners who want to deepen their systems-change practice and connect with peers
Program Fee & Benefits
Registration (Launching Early July 2026):
- 2026 Summer Early-Bird Rate: $1,800 per participant if you join by July 31, 2026
- Regular Rate: $2,000 per participant starting August 1, 2026
Final Day to Register: September 14, 2026 (Note: Registration will close sooner if the cap is met before this date)
How to Register: Sign up for the Early Registration Alert and be notified when registration launches in early July.
Additional Program Benefits
In addition to the Learning Lab sessions listed above, enrollment includes free registration to the Forum’s virtual workshop Facilitating Collaborative Meetings (December 2026), adding an extra $249 in value to your Learning Lab registration.
Interested in Learning More?
Reach out with your questions to CI Forum Executive Director Jennifer Juster at Jennifer.Juster@FSG.org for any questions related to the Learning Lab.
