What is the Role of the Backbone in Collective Impact?

What does it mean to play the backbone role for a collective impact initiative? What approaches to identifying the backbone tend to set the work up for success? In this episode, we’re focusing on the various ways the backbone works, and a few things to avoid when establishing a new backbone role.

Featuring Jennifer Splansky Juster, Robert Albright, and Tracy Timmons-Gray.

Resources and Footnotes

Report: When Collective Impact Has Impact: A Cross-Site Study of 25 Collective Impact Initiatives

Resource: Backbone Starter Guide: A Summary of Major Resources about the Backbone

More on Collective Impact approach to collaborate for social change:

Infographic: What is Collective Impact?

Resource List: Getting Started in Collective Impact

The Intro music, entitled “Running,” was composed by Rafael Krux, and can be found here and is licensed under CC: By 4.0.

The outro music, entitled “Deliberate Thought,” was composed by Kevin Macleod. Licensed under CC: By.

Have a question related to collaborative work that you'd like to have discussed on the podcast? You can send it to our short podcast listener survey or at info@collectiveimpactforum.org.