Navigating the Dangers to Collective Impact

Workshop Date and Time:

Tuesday, December 9, 2025. 1pm – 4:00pm ET (US & Canada)

ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP

Collective impact initiatives—no matter what issue area they focus on—can run into a series of common challenges that can stymie progress on achieving results, discourage teams, and inadvertently create a culture where partners would prefer to go solo rather than keep trying to overcome the hurdles of working together.

How can a collaborative navigate these many "dangers," and sustain their work over the long-term?

This workshop will review 10 challenges that often hinder a collective and share some practices and principles to navigate through them and help set (or reset) your initiative on a path forward. From steering away from strategy drift to setting up a culture that encourages accountability, this session will provide candid, practical advice on many of the real-world challenges that pop up (or explode) when doing complex, long-term collaborative work.

Session Recording: Along with attending this half-day workshop, you will receive a copy of the presentation and three-month access to the workshop recording.

Session Time Zone: Please note this session is held in Eastern Time (US & Canada.) If you are joining from another time zone, please make note of the time difference.

Faculty: Paul Schmitz, Senior Advisor, Collective Impact Forum and CEO, Leading Inside

Registration Details

Workshop Rate

Registration: $199 USD plus taxes and fees. With taxes and fees, the final rate is $214.19. Sales tax may be added depending on your state. Please see sales tax allocation at check-out.

Group Rates: Please contact Tracy Timmons-Gray at tracy.timmons-gray@collectiveimpactforum.org to access one of the below group discounts.

• Groups of 10-19 people receive a a 10% discount
• Groups of 20 or more people receive a 15% discount

Scholarships: A limited number of reduced-price registration scholarships are available for this workshop. This scholarship reduces registration to $75. Scholarship applications will close on Friday, November 21, 2025. Awardees will be notified if they are selected for a scholarship by November 24. Apply for a scholarship.

Please note: If applying for a scholarship, please do not register for the workshop before we notify you about your scholarship application. If you are not selected for a scholarship, we will share a code with you to register at the reduced eary-bird rate.

Cancellations and Refunds: Refunds are available, minus a 10% fee to cover non-recoupable administrative and staff expenses associated with event preparation, as long as registrants contact us in writing ahead of the cancellation deadline of December 3, 2025. Please see our FAQ below for cancellation information.

Workshop Speaker

Paul Schmitz builds the collective leadership of organizations and communities to achieve greater social impact through his roles as Senior Advisor at The Collective Impact Forum and CEO of Leading Inside Out. He is also the author of Everyone Leads: Building Leadership from the Community Up, and the former CEO of Public Allies, where he helped more than 5,000 diverse young adults begin careers working for community and social change. Paul is a faculty member of The Asset-Based Community Development Institute, was a social innovation advisor to the Obama White House, and has been named three separate years to The Nonprofit Times list of the 50 most influential nonprofit leaders in America. Paul is a faculty member of The Asset-Based Community Development Institute, and a board member of The Corps Network, the NYU Leadership Initiative, Playworks, and The United Way of Greater Milwaukee. Paul previously served on the board of Independent Sector, the association of nonprofit and philanthropic leaders, and was the co-chair of Voices for National Service, which led advocacy for AmeriCorps and other national service programs. Paul co-chaired the 2008 Obama Presidential campaign’s Civic Engagement Policy Group, was a member of The Obama-Biden Transition Team, and was appointed by President Obama to The White House Council for Community Solutions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this workshop in-person or online? This is an online workshop. We will be using Zoom Meeting for this session.

What currency is this workshop using for registration? The Collective Impact Forum is based in the United States and registration is in U.S. dollars.

What timezone is the workshop held in? The workshop is held in Eastern Time (US & Canada.) If joining from another time zone, please note the time difference.

What with the workshop entail? This online workshop will be a mix of presentation, Q&A, personal reflection, and small group time.

Will the workshops be recorded? The workshop presentations and full group discussion will be recorded. Small group time during the workshop will not be recorded. Recordings will be shared within one week of the workshop. Recordings are available for paid attendees for three months after the workshop.

What accessibility practices will this workshop be using? We will have Zoom auto-captions turned on for this workshop. In the days ahead of the workshop, we will send out copies of workshop presentations/handouts. After the workshop, we will share recordings of the workshop and full group discussion.

Please contact Tracy Timmons-Gray at tracy.timmons-gray@collectiveimpactforum.org if you have other access needs not addressed above.

Can my whole team sign-up with one registration? No. Each person will require their own registration as this is an active workshop where attendees will be broken up into small groups throughout the workshop to discuss learning questions during the session.

How do I cancel my registration and request a refund? All cancellation requests must be submitted in writing. Registered participants who decide to cancel their participation will receive a refund of their registration fee minus a 10% fee. The 10% fee covers non-recoupable administrative and staff expenses associated with event preparation. All refund requests should be emailed to Tracy Timmons-Gray at tracy.timmons-gray@collectiveimpactforum.org We are unable to process refunds after the refund deadline of December 3, 2025.

Refund Cancellation Deadline

Workshop Refund Deadline: Workshop cancellation deadline is Wednesday, December 3, 2025.

Have More Questions?

If your question is not addressed in our FAQ, please contact Tracy Timmons-Gray at tracy.timmons-gray@collectiveimpactforum.org