Establishing the Backbone: An Underexplored Facet of Collective Impact Efforts

Abstract

Coinciding with a growing interest in collective impact efforts, an increasing number of foundations, policymakers, and practitioners are recommending that multi-sector partnerships make use of a backbone. A backbone is an entity that functions independently as a centralized management team for partnership efforts. While the idea of using a backbone has gained currency, little attention has been paid to how to establish a backbone. Instead, much of the prevailing discussion has focused on what a backbone should do after it has been formed. In theory, better understanding all the types of functions an effective backbone should be able to perform ought to help new collective impact partnerships know what to look for in a potential backbone organization. Yet collective impact proponents have provided such detailed information about so many backbone functions that it may be difficult to identify organizations capable of carrying out such a complex role. Adding to the difficulty, the literature of resources on how to structure a backbone is limited and sometimes contradictory, leaving sites with little guidance concerning best practices for organizing and staffing a backbone. Research on the Ford Corridors of College Success initiative 1 reveals that communities that want to engage in the collective impact approach need more help in the process of creating a backbone. This brief describes the challenges that early-stage collective impact communities face as they work to identify potential backbone organizations and establish a backbone structure.