Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Leading a Backbone Organization for Collective Impact
FSG
Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 10:00 AM
Reply-To: FayJN.Hanleybrown@fsg.org
To: peterbnyc@gmail.com

Leading a Backbone Organization for Collective Impact: Resources to Advance Your Practice

A key tenet of collective impact is the presence of a backbone organization – staff dedicated to coordinating the work of the initiative – but thus far there have been limited opportunities for professional development or peer learning for backbone leaders.

To help address this need, the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions, FSG, the Strive Network, and the Tamarack Institute recently convened Champions for Change: Leading a Backbone Organization for Collective Impact, a workshop that brought together more than 60 backbone leaders from diverse collective impact initiatives to learn more about the backbone role, identify areas that would benefit collective impact practitioners, and share their experiences.

During the workshop, we captured the thoughts and insights of Kat Allen, coalition coordinator of the Franklin County Communities That Care Coalition, and other backbone leaders in a series of video interviews highlighting their tips for working in complex environments, the critical success factors they’ve identified, and how they help partners work collectively. View the videos below to learn more.

Ross Meyer, executive director of Partners for a Competitive Workforce, on collective impact in workforce development in Cincinnati, Kentucky, and Indiana.

Blair Taylor, president of Memphis Tomorrow, outlines how the collective impact approach accelerates economic growth and improves quality of life in the Memphis region.

Susan Dawson, president and executive director of E3 Alliance, offers perspectives on leading a cradle to career collective impact initiative in Austin, Texas.

Paul Born and Liz Weaver, president and vice president of the Tamarack Institute, discuss reducing poverty in communities across Canada using a collective impact approach.

The three-day session closed with leaders from FSG, Strive, and Tamarack addressing critical questions raised by workshop participants, including building shared leadership, measuring the success of the backbone organization, and articulating the value of the backbone organization to funders and community partners. Read Leading a Backbone Organization for Collective Impact to learn more.

Spread the word about Collective Impact!

• SHARE these interviews and the Leading a Backbone Organization for Collective Impact report via email, LinkedIn, or other social media with others who are working to solve social problems.
• TWEET about the importance of backbone organizations and collective impact. Sample Tweet: What makes #collectiveimpact work? Watch new videos & read secrets to backbone success http://ow.ly/m83ig
• JOIN the conversation on FSG’s Collective Impact blog.

FSG is a nonprofit consulting firm specializing in research, strategy, and evaluation, founded in 2000 as Foundation Strategy Group. Today, FSG works across all sectors in every region of the globe – partnering with corporations, nonprofits, foundations, and governments – to develop more effective solutions to the world's most challenging issues. FSG helps organizations, individually and collectively, improve society and business by discovering better ways to solve social problems.

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