What’s Up Next for the Collective Impact Forum?

Two weeks ago, we announced The Collective Impact Forum: our new partnership with the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions to share, curate and create the knowledge, networks, and tools to accelerate the adoption and increase the rigor of collective impact.

There are two main pieces to the Collective Impact Forum we are excited to tell you about:

• The digital forum: This website, which will launch in early 2014, will be a place for people to find others who are using the collective impact approach, providing an opportunity to learn from the challenges and successes of others. It will also have a library of tools and resources from thought leaders and practitioners across the field, so people can find what they need in their collective impact work.
• Communities of practice: To support deeper peer learning about collective impact, we will be supporting two communities of practice: one for backbone organizations and one for funders of collective impact. These communities of practice will have both in-person and virtual opportunities to learn and improve their practice. They will address key questions like, “How do we evaluate collective impact,” “What skills does the backbone organization need to succeed?”, “How do we sustain a collective impact initiative over time” … and many others.

Prior to the website launch, we will be holding a webinar on Collective Impact in Health on December 11, 2013.  In addition, there will be a great opportunity for members of backbone organizations to convene in person at our 2014 Workshop for Backbone Organizations, co-hosted with the Tamarack Institute. The workshops for backbone organization will be held in San Francisco, February 11–13^th and in Vancouver in April 1-3^rd. We’re also planning a conference for funders of collective impact in May 2014, to be held in Aspen, Colorado.

FSG and the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions welcome your suggestions for key topics to explore on the Collective Impact Forum website or in our communities of practice, and look forward to learning with you!