United Ways of Washington Introduction to the United Way Business Model

United Ways of WashingtonIntroduction to the United Way Business Model July 20, 2011

Agenda • Community aspirations, challenges and the role of the United Way • Work of the traditional UW and the need for change • United Way Business Model • Discussion

Why We Exist and the Value We Add • Mission • To improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities around the world to advance the common good. • Value Proposition • We galvanize and connect a diverse set of individuals and institutions, and mobilize resources, to create long-term change.

Our environment • We face internal and external challenges • We’re losing donors • Companies moving to “strategic philanthropy” approach • Overreliance on old economy business • There is a large trust gap across age groups • We have low public trust compared to other large nonprofits • But we also have real assets • Strong brand • Large footprint • We can and do bring people together • Millions of supporters

What does this all mean? • We are going to have to work very differently, building on our assets • We have to do this with our communities • Figure out what makes a difference, bring folks together to get it done, and raise money to do it • We’ve always been an intermediary and we still are, but we have to add value

Operate as an integrated and aligned organization Have the right skills, competencies & leadership United Way Business Model What will it take to become a United Way mobilizing for community impact? A deeper focus on certain elements of the Standards of Excellence Engage and align with the community Create & deepen relationships with individuals& institutions Develop strategies and focus actions Mobilize resources Align and execute on plans and strategies Measure, evaluate & communicate results If we wish to be effective, we will need to:

Engage and align with the community • What it means: • Working with stakeholders to set community-wide goals and priorities • What United Way does: • Builds community knowledge through conversations • Builds coalitions of multi-sector partnerships • Communicates how people’s input is making a difference • Identifies people wanting to do more – the “hand raisers” • What needs to change: • Base United Way decisions on community priorities • Listen first, and not just once

Create & deepen relationships with individuals & institutions • What it means: • Understanding and deepen relationships with individuals and institutions aligned around long-term community goals • What United Way does: • Puts processes in place to make relationships work • Collects data on supporters and uses it • Uses technology to track relationship interactions • What needs to change: • Expand beyond institutional focus to include individual focus • Building and managing relationships becomes a core competency

Develop strategies and focus actions • What it means: • Using community and expert knowledge to set bold community goals and build strategies with community partners that get at the root causes of education, income, and health challenges • What United Way does with partners: • Sets meaningful community goals • Builds action plans • Gets agreement on which partners will play what role • What needs to change: • Strategies are community-wide, comprehensive strategies, not United Way strategies • Strategies have to get at root causes – we can’t direct service our way into social change

Mobilize resources • What it means: • Identifying what it will take to get to your results and giving donors, volunteers, and advocates a chance to support the work • What United Way does: • Identifies the resource needs of the community change strategies • Develops multi-year plans to mobilize resources • Gives supporters things to do that will lead to results –GAV • What needs to change: • Create ways for people to do more than just give, especially in the workplace • Generate resources aligned to results • Money is not the only resource that matters in social change

Align and execute on plans and strategies • What it means: • Aligning United Way activities and resources to deliver on our roles in community change efforts; implementing community strategies; and sharing accountability • What United Way does: • Aligns operations and processes to support community strategies • Execute in a cross-functionally aligned manner • What needs to change: • Integrated execution replaces siloed behavior • Creating community change is long-term with interim metrics of progress

Measure, evaluate & communicate results • What it means: • Evaluating results of the community change strategies, adjusting them, and sharing successes • What United Way does: • Sets up a system of ongoing data collection and review • Shares stories of progress to build public will • Adjusts strategies as needed • What needs to change: • Measure in populations improved, not just clients served • Use storytelling to connect your efforts to the larger change over time • United Way doesn’t take the credit-celebrate partners

How we execute against the Business Model • Work on things that matter to people • Connect with more people - get them involved • Get agreement on strategies • Give everyone a chance to support the plan • Tell people about the results

Some implications for our work • New skills – change management leadership, grassroots organizing, issues management, strategic communications, advocacy, relationship management, social media • New content expertise – education, income, and health • Executing according to value proposition – conveners, “mobilizers”, “aligners” of efforts towards long-term community change • Diversification of revenue streams – complex grants (federal, state, and private), individual gifts, etc. • Technology – new platforms to enable individual giving, advocacy, and volunteering; new relationship management tools; back office/financial systems for a new era • Full organizational alignment – functional teams must work seamlessly • Network alignment – we must operate as a truly interdependent network that coordinates appropriately

Small size not necessarily a disadvantage • Smaller size often provides: • Greater agility • Quicker buy-in • Greater reliance on community resources • Closer relationship with stakeholders

Discussion • What are your reactions to the Business Model? • How would your board and your community respond to these ideas? • What are the opportunities in your community to implement some of these business practices?

Thank You

United Ways of WashingtonExecuting on the Business ModelJuly 20, 2011

Session Purpose • Share effective approaches and practices that help United Ways become more relevant in their communities as well as increase revenue and the number of donors.

Agenda • Executing on the business model • Touchstones for executing on the business framework • Turn Outward • Build deep, meaningful, ongoing relationships • Go beyond funding services to true Impact Strategies • Connect investors to strategies • Measuring success Discussion

Our Response to Changes in Our Environment • If we’re going to add value in communities, we have to: • Galvanize and connect a diverse set of individuals and institutions, and mobilize resources, to create long-term change. • Listen to what the community cares about • Figure out what’s going to make a difference • Raise money and bring supporters together • Get it done – with your partners • Talk about your progress, the role you play, and adjust when you need to

ENGAGE WITH COMMUNITY MEASURE AND COMMUNICATE BUILD STRATEGIES EXECUTE GATHER RESOURCES United Way Business Model

Execution to what end? Brand positioning and promise Advancing the common good by creating opportunities for a good life for all • Education • Helping children and youth achieve their potential • Income • Promoting financial stability and independence • Health • Improving people’s health Pillars or Focus areas e.g., academic achievement Target issues e.g., Young people graduate from high school Intended results e.g., Public on-time high school graduation rate* Indicators *As measured by the averaged freshman graduation rate

Touchstones for Executing on the Business Framework • Turn Outward • Build deep, meaningful, ongoing relationships • Go beyond funding services to true Impact strategies • Connect investors to strategies • Measuring success

Touchstone 1: Turn Outward • The act of seeing and hearing those in the community and acting with intentionality to create change. • A reorientation toward the public.

Turn Outward: The Quiz • Complete the Turn Outward Quiz individually • Within your group, compare observations • Identify three benefits of turning outward • Identify three concerns

Touchstone 2: Build deep, meaningful, ongoing relationships • Relationship Management (RM) is an organizational strategy to put the constituent at the center of everything we do. • The goal of relationship management is to better understand, relate to and engage a constituent to (a) improve their experience with our brand and (b) generate longer-standing and more significant relationships with them.

Touchstone 2: Build deep, meaningful, ongoing relationships Relationship management is a way of doing business across the organization that tailors the constituent experience in order to forge lasting relationships. • Relationship management success is contingent on everyone in the organization, from the CEO to each and every staff and Board member and volunteer, buying into and supporting the effort. • Requires shifting the organization’s mindset to center on relationships rather than transactions.

Touchstone 2: Build deep, meaningful, ongoing relationships Build more personal and relevant connections with current and prospective individuals so that… they become inspired to sign on for the cause and commit to act on the impact work and/or with United Way.

program clients program clients program clients program clients program clients program clients program clients direct service direct service direct service direct service direct service direct service direct service direct service direct service direct service program clients program clients program clients Touchstone 3: Go beyond funding services to true Impact Strategies

Historical trends Economic conditions Public attitudes Media messages Public sector policies/ practices Private sector policies/ practices Community Issues Health care system policies/ practices Education system policies/ practices System relationships Neighborhood conditions Family dynamics Personal choices Many Factors Contribute to Pressing Community Issues

Organizations Neighborhoods Community population Personal networks Changing community conditions Areas Surrounding Homes, Workplaces, Schools, and Service Providers Schools, NGOs, Hospitals, Businesses, Churches and Civic Groups Systems Government Agencies, Health Care Systems, the Media, and the School System Friends, Family, Neighbors, Other Close Associates

Example TARGET OUTCOME: Children from families earning under 125% poverty receive appropriate vaccinations before entering school

Organizations Neighborhoods Personal networks Example PROBLEM: Clinic is opened when caregivers are working Clinics begin operating during evening hours to accommodate working parents PROBLEM: Can’t locate clinics Signs are put up alerting people to the location of local children’s clinics Systems Children from families earning under 125% poverty PROBLEM: Vaccines aren’t accessible for people Schools and public health systems begin integrating their services so that caregivers can access them in one location PROBLEM: Caregivers don’t know vaccines are important: Caregivers take their children to the doctor to receive vaccinations

Examples of Changes in Community Conditions that can Benefit Populations • Target outcome • Single mothers not taking advantage of public and employer benefits begin to use those benefits to increase their incomes • Supporting changes in community conditions • in organizations Employers adopt opt-out policies for benefits that increase employee income • in systems Public benefit programs adopt uniform eligibility requirements and applications, 1-visit application procedures • in neighborhoods Neighborhood associations put information on public benefits in places where mothers go frequently • in personal networksFriends and family members encourage low-income mothers to use free tax-preparation services

Touchstone 4: Connect investors to strategies Develop & implement impact strategies that improve lives Segment, prioritize, and understand interests of investors and build ongoing relationships with them Frame strategies as investment products and connect them to investor interests/aspirations

What are United Way’s “Products”? • Issues • Goals • Strategies • Parts of strategies • that individuals and institutions - organizations, businesses, foundations, governments - are willing to GIVE, ADVOCATE, or VOLUNTEER to support

Board member connected to health care Financial support Example 1: Connecting contributor interests with investment products Potential contributor with related interest Needed for impact strategy

Financial support Board member connected to health care Example 1: Connecting contributor interests with investment products Board member secured $75K from a pharmaceutical company, $10K from another health care company

Volunteers for after-school program Employees of companies in school’s neighborhood Example 2: Connecting contributor interests with investment products Potential contributors with related interest Needed for impact strategy

Employees of companies in school’s neighborhood Volunteers for after-school program Example 2: Connecting contributor interests with investment products Adults investing time and talents in neighborhood youth

Space for tax preparation services Organizations with accessible, unused space Example 3: Connecting contributor interests with investment products Potential contributors with related resource Needed for impact strategy

Example 3: Connecting contributor interests with investment products Space for tax preparation services Multiple sites convenient to lower-income populations Organizations with accessible, unused space

Measuring Program OutcomesGetting Started Learned about program elements: inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes Why we measure outcomes Benefits for agencies and their programs Benefits for United Ways How to implement outcome measurement in your community How to use outcome information in funding decisions

Continuing Value of Program Outcome Measurement Does this mean that United Ways should stop funding programs? Definitely not! Improving lives by supporting direct-service programs is one of the investment strategies of community impact UWs. Does it mean that United Ways should phase out program outcome measurement? Again, no! It has proven to be a valuable tool for agencies and the human service system. Does it mean that program outcome measurement does not have a role in the work of achieving community impact? Emphatically, no! In fact, the value of program outcome measurement will increase as United Ways and their community partners move forward with creating community change.

What does this mean? Understanding the relationship between program outcomes and community outcomes encourages United Ways to: Avoid creating expectations that funding programs alone will produce community outcomes. Develop more comprehensive approaches that are effective in achieving community change. Identify the ways that program outcome measurement can contribute to community impact. Create mechanisms for maximizing that contribution.

Change in community condition Change in community condition Change in community condition Change in community condition Change in community condition Change in community condition A Community Impact Plan Lays Out Your “Theory of Change” Target outcome Population change Change in community condition Population change Partnership’s mobilizing activities

There’s No Room for Domestic Violence in Madison CountyTheory of Change Highlights Target Outcome People who experience domestic violence are not abused again. People in danger have places to go to be safe and get connected to further assistance. DV victims take action to avoid further abuse. Abusers do not repeat abuse. Population Changes Businesses, hospitals, & fire departments provide safe haven to DV victims. LE agencies consistently arrest alleged DV offenders. DV shelters help victims assess options, take action. Community Condition Changes Courts closely supervise convicted DV offenders. Law enforcement officers are trained in “pro-arrest” response to DV. All county LE agencies adopt “pro-arrest” policy regarding DV.

 Children from low-income families A Community’s Research-based Framework for Education Priority community issue:Helping children and youth succeed Research-based components of the issue: School readiness Early-grade reading proficiency Successful middle-school transitions On-time high school graduation Completion of college or advanced training Populations of special concern in this community: Research-based components of school readiness: Health & physical development Social, emotional & intellectual development Language & literacy development  Children from families with English as a second language

One Component of a Community’s Comprehensive School Readiness Initiative Target outcome: Children from low-income families enter school with age-appropriate language/literacy skills • Strategy 1:Ensure that parents and family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) care-givers interact with young children in ways that research shows build language/literacy skills. • Equip pediatricians, child care & other service providers, faith leaders, and peer leaders to: • Disseminate materials on how to build language/literacy skills; • Teach/coach/motivate language/ literacy-building behavior; • Make referrals to needed speech & language, parenting, or other services. • Distribute Born LearningSM and other research-based materials where parents and FFN caregivers live, work, shop, play, and pray. • Ensure that social services provide low-income clients who have young children with language- and literacy-building tools. • Advocate for increased state funding for library system education and outreach to low-income families with young children. • Strategy 2:Ensure that young children’s environments are literacy rich, containing age-appropriate books, paper, crayons, markers, etc. • Enlist individuals and organizations across the community in ongoing efforts to gather age-appropriate books and art supplies for distribution to environments of young children from low-income families. • Distribute children’s books and art supplies to homes and other care settings of young children from low-income families. • Arrange for the public television station to air “A Place of Our Own” series. • Equip home visitors with research-based materials and training to help parents provide a literacy-rich environment and use books and art supplies to build young children’s language/literacy skills. • Advocate for a state policy change to make FFN caregivers eligible for training and supplies available through state child care resource and referral networks. • Strategy 3:Prepare family-based child care providers and Head Start staff to interact with young children in ways that research shows build language/literacy skills. • Implement a “Mind in the Making” train-the-trainer program to increase skills of family care/Head Start providers. • Facilitate public-private collaboration on developing an Early Reading First grant proposal to support early literacy development in child care settings . • Enroll family care/Head Start providers in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to place children’s books in these settings. • Connect family care/Head Start providers with research-based story extenders and model their use in building on story concepts to expand children’s under-standing and vocabulary. • Advocate for the state child care quality rating system (QRS) assessment to include provider competence in extending children’s language and promoting literacy skills.

United Ways of Washington Introduction to the United Way Business Model