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One of the most common questions we hear from collective impact practitioners is how to raise the funds needed to support and sustain the backbone role. While some funders have a nuanced understanding of the immense value of collective impact initiatives, supporting the backbone is a different approach for many philanthropic and public funding sources, which can make it challenging to get the consistent, long-term investments needed to help effect population-change.

International development is in the midst of a sea change, broadening from a general focus on project-based outcomes to production of sustainable, embedded change. Worldwide, leaders at all levels are calling for development outcomes that go beyond “short-term technical assistance” and direct service provision, and looking to integrated approaches that foster self reliance and resilience.

Collective impact practitioners have an insatiable appetite for tools, case studies, and other actionable resources on the “how” of collective impact: how to embed equity in planning and implementation, how to prioritize authentic community engagement, how to use data for continuous learning and improvement, how to create a culture of collaboration and build partners’ collaborative leadership capacity, and more.

Funders who have ambitious goals to change large systems often create partnerships with intermediaries and evaluators to help realize their visions. But what does it take to effectively weave these partners together and position them to achieve their goals?

We're just a few weeks away from the 2019 Collective Impact Convening in Chicago. Before the big event, we have a few resources to share from some of this year's presenters.

A collaborative effort, driven by a diverse group of stakeholders united behind a common goal, can serve as a catalyst for addressing inequities at a systems level. But beneath the unity of purpose, initial disagreement can arise when stakeholders have to decide how to invest in those with the greatest need without sacrificing community-level goals or appearing to favor one group over another.

Collective impact (CI), a framework for influencing systems change, was launched in the winter of 2011. The CI approach has been deployed by community collaboratives across Canada, the US and internationally to move the needle on a wide variety of complex issues from decreasing homelessness and poverty to improving health and education outcomes for children and youth.

The role of technology in social efforts has grown over the past several years. With the advancement of technological tools, technology has facilitated the efforts of nonprofits, governments, and private sector actors in catalyzing social change. However, the feasibility and the degree to which technologies could support the efforts of collective impact efforts remained unclear. The Collective Impact Forum recently partnered with Sony to survey members of the Collective Impact Forum to understand their technological needs and understand whether there was an opportunity for new technology to support collective impact efforts.

As we close out the year, we’re excited to share with you 2018’s most popular resources from the Collective Impact Forum. Before we get to that, we want to offer first our gratitude to you. The Collective Impact Forum is a global community (over 25,000 strong and counting), and we want to recognize that the very heart of social change are those who are pushing the work forward every day—with determination, faith, humor, curiosity, resilience, solidarity, hope, and love.

Earlier this year, the Collective Impact Forum gathered feedback through its fourth annual survey of members with online profiles. The purpose of this survey was to assess the Forum’s progress to date, to understand the current state of our members’ collective impact initiatives, and to collect input on topics of interest for our programming. Thank you to all who responded to the 2018 survey.