2026 Backbone Leaders Learning Lab
Sep 16, 2026 • 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Adaptive Leadership, Collaboration, Systems Change • Virtual Event
Offered by Collective Impact Forum, this 4-part series will bring together backbone leaders who are navigating a range of challenges for skill building, coaching, and peer learning.
Backbone leaders play one of the most critical – and often least understood – roles in collaborative, place-based work. You hold the group’s focus on its north star, nurture trust, keep partners aligned, and help communities make meaningful progress on complex challenges.
In today’s environment, backbone leaders are navigating a range of challenges – such as an unpredictable political climate, uncertain funding, and the tension between addressing urgent community needs and stewarding long-term strategic work.
Yet despite how critical this role is, backbone leaders rarely have access to spaces designed specifically for their unique needs, pressures, and leadership realities.
Peer spaces designed specifically for backbone leaders are rare, and this program offers what you need to lead, including:
-- Practical tools to advance systems change
A-- clearer understanding of the backbone role and how to execute it effectively
-- Strategies for navigating uncertainty and how to move forward
-- Greater confidence in sustaining long-term collaborative work
-- A nationwide peer network of people doing similar work
-- A renewed sense of purpose, energy, and grounding
Cost associated. Eligible for support through Rotary Charities Learning Fund.