$(document).ready(function() { $('#collection-view').sortable({ // consider using update instead of stop stop: function(event, ui) { ui.item.trigger('drop', ui.item.index()); } }); }); The stop event is bound to a function that triggers drop on the DOM node for the item with the item's index (provided by jQuery UI) as data. Item view Application.View.Item = Backbone.View.extend({ tagName: 'li', cl