Workshop: Solving Difficult Collective Impact Challenges

Date: June 26, 2024, 1pm - 4pm Eastern (US & Canada)

Doing collective impact well means managing complexity in strategy and implementation across a network of diverse actors. It requires managing change for network members who need to change their work to align with the collective impact initiative’s priorities. And it means addressing differences and even conflicts amongst the group.

In this workshop, participants will learn adaptive leadership and other practices that groups have found helpful to manage and solve for complexity, change, and conflict within their coalitions.

What kinds of challenges does this workshop help to address?

Aligning a network of coalition members to move change together is difficult and complex work. These are some examples of challenges we have seen that these tools can help to address (not an exhaustive list, just examples):

• Members don’t fulfill commitments and avoid accountability;
• Members have competing interests or even conflicts where they sabotage the collective or refuse to work with each other;
• There are power dynamics within the collective between grass-tops and grass-roots members that are shutting members down, diminishing trust in the process, and leading to member attrition;
• There is a lack of trust with key partners who refuse to share data or information on their programs and outcomes with the group;
• Differences in the group in committing to and centering equity in the collective;
• A small group of members meet together outside the collective’s meetings and make decisions to exclude others and pursue funding for work that conflicts with the agenda;
• Members refuse to change their work to align with the agenda, participating in the collective but continuing programs or activities that undermine the shared strategies.

What will this workshop provide? This three-hour workshop will be a mix of presentation, personal reflection, and small group discussion. Attendees will gain from this session:

1. Ability to better articulate and frame challenges within the collective impact in order to generate solutions;

2. Ability to apply adaptive leadership practices and other tools to collective impact challenges.

Who should participate in this workshop? This workshop will be aimed at backbone staff or individuals in leadership roles (e.g., steering committee or workgroup co-chairs) in collective impact efforts. Partners who are members of collective impact efforts and want to learn these skills are also invited.

WORKSHOP FACULTY

• Dominique Samari, Cofounder, P3 Development Group, and Technical Advisor, Collective Impact Forum
• Paul Schmitz, CEO, Leading Inside Out and Senior Advisor, Collective Impact Forum

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Registration Fee: Individual registration is $199 USD. With credit card and Eventbrite processing fees, the final cost per person is $214.19 USD.

Group Rates: Please contact Jennifer Splansky Juster at jennifer.juster@collectiveimpactforum.org to inquire about group discounts.

• Groups of 10-19 people receive 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-only option. This scholarship reduces registration from $199 to $75. Scholarship applications will close on Friday, June 7. Awardees will be notified if they are selected for a scholarship by June 14. Apply for a registration scholarship.

Cancellations and Refunds: Refunds are available for the workshop, 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 June 19, 2024. Please see our FAQ below for cancellation information.

WORKSHOP SPEAKERS

Dominique Samari is Cofounder at P3 Development Group, technical advisor for the Collective Impact Forum, and is an experienced strategist, coach, and facilitator who helps organizations build and sustain equitable and inclusive change. A naturally empathetic leader, Samari specializes in supporting leaders as they navigate difficult and complex change. Samari began her career as a criminal defense attorney and a City of Milwaukee criminal court commissioner. She transitioned from the practice of law to international development, serving in key management positions for the U.S. Department of State’s Rule of Law Program in Afghanistan. There, she designed and implemented culturally-relevant strategies and training opportunities for over 2,000 Afghan criminal justice professionals. In 2011, Samari translated her diverse background and experience into co-founding P3 Development Group. Most recently, Samari has led planning for Imagine MKE, the city of Milwaukee’s first inclusive hub for arts and culture, helped set the strategic direction for the newly-created Milwaukee Parks Foundation, and facilitated racial equity and inclusion strategy development for the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. Samari is also the creator of the Belonging Project, a year-long exploration into how individuals create a sense of belonging across differences. Informed and inspired by data from the Belonging Project, she subsequently developed Kin, an online platform designed to authentically connect individuals across real and perceived differences.

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 workshop is online. We will be using Zoom Meeting.

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 time zone will this workshop be in? The time zone for this workshop is Eastern Time (US & Canada.)

What activities are included in the workshop? This three-hour online workshop will be a mix of presentation, Q&A, personal reflection, and small group discussion.

Will the workshop be recorded? The workshop presentation and full group discussion will be recorded. Small group discussions 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.

I understand there is an Implementation Lab series also with this workshop. How can I find out about that? Yes, for those interested, we are offering a small group Implementation Lab series for in-depth coaching and peer learning on tackling collaborative challenges. Please visit our registration page if you would like to learn more and join.

What accessibility practices will this workshop use? We will have Zoom auto-captions turned on for these sessions. In the days ahead of each session, we will send out copies of workshop presentations/handouts. After the workshop, we will share recordings of the workshop and full group discussion. The recording will have auto-captions. Please contact Jennifer Splansky Juster at jennifer.juster@collectiveimpactforum.org if you have other access needs not addressed above.

Can I be invoiced for these sessions? Yes, we can invoice you. Invoices must be paid by ACH or check. Credit card orders cannot be processed by invoice. If you wish to pay by credit card, please register via Eventbrite. All requests to pay by invoice must be made by June 19, 2024. Please reach out to Jennifer Splansky Juster at jennifer.juster@collectiveimpactforum.org to inquire about invoice options.

Can my whole team / organization participate in the workshop under one registration? No. Each workshop participant 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.

To Cancel Your Registration: Registered participants who decide to cancel their participation in the workshop 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 Jennifer Splansky Juster at jennifer.juster@collectiveimpactforum.org. We are unable to process refunds after the refund deadline of June 19, 2024.

Have More Questions?

If your question is not addressed in our FAQ, please reach out to Jennifer Splansky Juster at jennifer.juster@collectiveimpactforum.org.