Abstract: Recent work by the Foundation Strategies Group on “collective impact” has been getting a great deal of attention in philanthropic, government and nonprofit arenas. This panel will present three different evaluations of projects in Grand Rapids, Michigan that are applying the collective impact framework to their work. The three initiatives are funded and implemented by different organizations, but the evaluations are all being done by researchers from Grand Valley State University with data systems support from the Community Research Institute (CRI) at the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at GVSU. The panelists will present the evaluation designs and preliminary results and discuss the infrastructure needed to support these place-based evaluations. A key part of the infrastructure from the collective impact lens is having a “backbone organization” that supports the development of a common vision, shared outcomes and shared measurement. CRI / JCP’s emerging role as a backbone organization will be discussed. #HowTo #datawarehouse #indicatordevelopment #Non-ProfitsandFoundationsEvaluation #2012Conference #datasharingagreements