The Latest

Securing Funding for the Backbone Role: Lessons from the Field

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.

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Collective Advocacy for Collective Impact

Over the last year, the First 2000 Days Network has been striving to address systems change efforts as part of our multi-tiered Theory of Change and our Systemic Change Framework.  Our Network includes what we term ‘change mechanisms’ at multiple levels: individual, community, organization & agency and systems-level – all with the goal of improving outcomes for children and families.

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The Role of Continuous Communication in Collective Impact

As a masters student in strategic communications management at McMaster University (affiliated with Syracuse University), I am doing my final thesis paper on the role of strategic communications in collective impact. My inspiration is the recent study “When Collective Impact Has An Impact” which identified the use of communication as a largely tactical, rather than a strategic function. 

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Waiting at the Intersection of ABCD and Collective Impact

I recently received an email question from a colleague curious about the different approaches identified in the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) and collective impact frameworks.  They commented that ABCD seemed to be more grassroots driven while collective impact seemed to be more top down driven.  This question led me to consider our approach at Tamarack to understanding and incorporating different organizing frameworks into our thinking and training. I thought I would share my response with everyone. 

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Building the Practice of Collective Impact

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. 

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Change is in the Air

November took me to Australia and New Zealand to meet with colleagues working on community change, community-led development and Collective Impact.  I was a keynote speaker and workshop presenter at ChangeFest, a gathering of 500 Collective Impact practitioners in Logan, Queensland. 

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