Investing in Change: Funding Collective Impact

Nicole Angresano

Vice President, Community Impact

United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County

Today’s Key Takeaways

• Understanding the key elements of collective impact

• Increasing Awareness of Local Examples of collective impact

• Understanding the various roles funders can play in collective impact efforts

• Assessing if a funder/foundation should take on a role in collective impact and if so, which role(s)?

Achieving Large-Scale Change through Collective Impact

5 Steps

Common Agenda/Goal •Common understanding of the problem •Shared vision for change

Shared Measurement•Collecting data and measuring results •Focus on performance management •Shared accountability

Mutually Reinforcing Activities

•Differentiated approaches •Coordination through joint plan of action

Continuous Communication •Consistent and open communication •Focus on building trust

Backbone Support •Separate organization(s) with staff •Resources and skills to convene and coordinate participating organizations

1. COMMON AGENDA: MILWAUKEE TEEN PREGNANCY PREVENTION INITIATIVE

ONE GOAL: Reduce births to 15-17 year

olds.

Theory of Change/Logic Model

2. SHARED MEASUREMENT: BEYOND THE BELL

MILWAUKEE 

Beyond the Bell is working to coordinate access,

participation, data sharing, and quality improvement strategies among out-of-

school (after school, summer, and expanded learning)

opportunities for youth and teens ages 13-18.

The data group, specifically, is working to identify and pursue

strategies for collecting, sharing, and using data to track city-wide participation and service inefficiencies for

programs serving youth.

3: MUTUALLY REINFORCING ACTIVITIES: MILWAUKEE SUCCEEDS

Success for every child, in every school, cradle to career.

That’s the goal of Milwaukee Succeeds, an extensive community partnership that the Greater Milwaukee Foundation helped launch in 2011

along with a number of key business and civic leaders. The historic partnership is committed to making significant progress and bringing

lasting change to the way the Milwaukee community supports the education of our children.

4: CONTINUOUS COMMUNICATION: COORDINATED ENTRY

5: BACKBONE SUPPORT: MILWAUKEE LIFECOURSE INITATIVE FOR HEALTHY FAMILIES

So. . .Where do the Funders Fit In?

The current approach of many funders is less conducive to solving complex problems:

•Funders develop internal foundation strategy

•Funders pick and fund individual grantees, who work separately and compete to produce results

•Funders build capacity of individual organizations

•Funders evaluate individual grants and determine attribution

•Funders are held accountable to internal stakeholders (e.g., Board)

•Funders work independently and don’t always coordinate their actions with other funders

In a collective impact context, funders shift their mindset to an

“adaptive” approach more aligned with complex issues:

• Funders co-create strategy with other key stakeholders

• Funders fund a long-term process of change around a specific problem

in active collaboration with many organizations within a larger

system

• Funders must be flexible and adaptive to get to the intended

outcome with stakeholders

• Funders build the capacity of multiple organizations to work

together

• Funders evaluate progress towards a social goal and degree of

contribution to its solution

• Funders are held jointly accountable for achievement of goals

developed as part of effort

•Funders actively coordinate their action and share lessons learned

A New Paradigm for Funders Shifting from Isolated Impact to Collective Impact Requires a Different Approach on the Part of Funders

Funders Can Engage in Collective Impact Efforts in a Number of Ways

Sample Funder Role Description

Catalyst Funder initiates collective impact strategy as champion, financier, and convener, potentially playing a key role in attracting resources throughout the effort

Backbone Organization Funder organizes and coordinates the actions of cross-sector stakeholders to advance collective impact effort

Participant Funder actively participates in collective impact effort, and aligns funding and measurement to the effort

Funder Activities Can Take a Number of Diverse Forms Over the Course of a Collective Impact Effort

Phase I Initiate Action

Phase II Organize for Impact

Phase III Sustain Action and Impact

•Fund data collection / research required to make the case for collective impact •Encourage grantees and stakeholders to collaborate •Encourage other funders to join the effort / align with other funders •Use convening power to draw key stakeholders to the table •Broker relationships to create open lines of communication between stakeholders •Participate on Steering Committee

•Fund backbone infrastructure •Fund shared measurement systems •Fund trainings to increase stakeholder expertise in key collective impact skill sets e.g., leadership, group planning •Fund research on evidence-based practices •Encourage grantees and other stakeholders to align evaluation to shared measures •Convene community stakeholders •Participate on working groups or Steering Committee

•Align funding with the common goals and measures of the effort •Continue to fund backbone infrastructure and shared measurement systems •Fund discrete initiatives identified through the collective impact effort •Provide content expertise on evidence-based practices •Continue to encourage grantees and other stakeholders to align evaluation to shared measures •Align strategy with other funders and actively coordinate •Participate on working groups or Steering Committee

How do funders know if this model is right for them?

Catalyst• How do we know this is the topic to focus on

right now?• How will we measure success for this topic?• What drew our interest to this topic?• What knowledge, resources, and value do we

feel that we can uniquely bring to this topic?

Theory Of Change• How does this topic fit into our theory of

change?• How rigid is our theory of change? Are we

willing to re-examine our theory of change?• How comfortable are we redefining the

problem and/or the solutions with in collaboration with other stakeholders?

How do funders know if this model is right for them?

Organizational Culture• What is our comfort level with collaboration in

general?• What is our comfort level collaborating with

stakeholders who have different perspectives?• What is our comfort level with not knowing,

being wrong and/or changing course?• What is our organization’s attitude towards

process versus outcome?

Risk• How comfortable are we being a part of

something we can’t solely control?• How many resources, and which resources,

are we comfortable putting towards something that we can’t solely control?

• What are our desired levels of strategic and operational control? Why?

How do funders know if this model is right for them?

Fundraising/Branding• How do we feel about fundraising for a process

(relationship and movement building) versus well-defined program outcomes?

• How can we tell the complex story of this collaboration to our donors in a way that matters to them?

• How much ownership/credit do we want? How much are we willing to share?

Timeline• How comfortable are we in engaging in multi-

year, and potentially multi-decade, initiatives?• For what timeframe are we able to commit

resources (time, staff, financial, etc.) to?• What exit strategies, if any, do we need?