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“The backbone organization in a collective impact effort both helps maintain overall strategic coherence and coordinates and manages the day-to-day operations and implementation of work, including stakeholder engagement, communications, data collection and analysis, and other responsibilities.

The following resources are intended to serve as tools for establishing the infrastructure of a collective impact backbone. Their development was informed by FSG’s experience working with a variety of organizations. The tools have been generalized to be applicable across contexts; however, because no two collective impact efforts are the same, these resources should be considered a starting place to be tailored to the unique circumstances of each initiative.

This toolkit includes the following resources:

• List of Sample Backbone Activities – to provide clarity to backbone organizations on their role in supporting implementation of the initiative
• Working Group Meeting Planning and Execution Checklist – to assist backbone organizations with work group meeting planning and execution
• Sample Request for Proposals (RFP) for a Backbone Organization – to provide an example for Collective Impact efforts seeking proposals for a Backbone
• Sample Backbone Position Descriptions – to assist with staffing key positions within the Backbone. This tool includes example postings for the roles of Executive Director, Project Coordinator, and Data Consultant; however, the appropriate size of the Backbone, and composition of team roles, will depend on the scope and scale of the Collective Impact Initiative.”