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

United Ways of WashingtonIntroduction to the United Way Business Model

July 20, 2011

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• 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

Agenda

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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.

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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

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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

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What will it take to become a United Way mobilizing for community impact?

A deeper focus on certain elements of the Standards of Excellence

If we wish to be effective, we will need to:

United Way Business Model

Operate as an integrated

and aligned organization

Have the right skills,

competencies & leadership

Create & deepen

relationships with

individuals &institutions

Measure, evaluate &

communicate results

Engage and align with the community

Develop strategies and focus

actions

Mobilize resources

Align and execute on plans and strategies

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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

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Create & deepen relationships with individuals & institutions

What it means:

• Understanding and deepen relationships with individuals and

institutions aligned around long-term community goals


• Puts processes in place to make relationships work

• Collects data on supporters and uses it

• Uses technology to track relationship interactions


• Expand beyond institutional focus to include individual focus

• Building and managing relationships becomes a core

competency

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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


• 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

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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


• 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


• 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

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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


• Aligns operations and processes to support community strategies

• Execute in a cross-functionally aligned manner


• Integrated execution replaces siloed behavior

• Creating community change is long-term with interim metrics of

progress

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Measure, evaluate & communicate results

What it means:

• Evaluating results of the community change strategies, adjusting

them, and sharing successes


• Sets up a system of ongoing data collection and review

• Shares stories of progress to build public will

• Adjusts strategies as needed


• 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

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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

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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

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Small size not necessarily a disadvantage

Smaller size often provides:

• Greater agility

• Quicker buy-in

• Greater reliance on community resources

• Closer relationship with stakeholders

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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?

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Thank You

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United Ways of WashingtonExecuting on the Business Model

July 20, 2011

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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.

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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

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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

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United Way Business Model

GATHER RESOURCES

EXECUTE

ENGAGE WITH COMMUNITY

BUILD STRATEGIES

MEASURE AND COMMUNICATE

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Brand positioning and promise

Execution to what end?

Advancing the common good by creating opportunities for a good life for all

Pillars or Focus areas

Target issues

Intended results

Indicators

EducationHelping children and youth achieve their

potential

IncomePromoting financial

stability and independence

HealthImproving people’s

health

e.g., academic achievement

e.g., Young people graduate from high school

e.g., Public on-time high school graduation rate*

*As measured by the averaged freshman graduation rate

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Touchstones for Executing on the Business Framework

1. Turn Outward

2. Build deep, meaningful, ongoing relationships

3. Go beyond funding services to true Impact strategies

4. Connect investors to strategies

5. Measuring success

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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.

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Turn Outward: The Quiz

1. Complete the Turn Outward Quiz individually

2. Within your group, compare observations

3. Identify three benefits of turning outward

4. Identify three concerns

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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.

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• 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.

Relationship management is a way of doing business across the organization that tailors the constituent experience in order to

forge lasting relationships.

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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.

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Touchstone 3: Go beyond funding services totrue Impact Strategies

direct service

direc

t se

rvice

direct service

direct

service

direct service

direct service

direct

service

direc

t se

rvice

direct

servicedirect service

program clients

program clients program

clients

program clients

program clients

program clients

program clientsprogram

clients

program clients

program clients

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Many Factors Contribute to Pressing Community Issues

Personal choices

Family dynamics

System relationships

Education system policies/

practices

Health care system policies/

practices

Media messages

Historical trends

Economic conditions

Public attitudes

Publicsector policies/

practices

Privatesector policies/

practices

Neighborhood conditions

Community Issues

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Changing community conditions

Organizatio

ns

Personal networks

Neighborhoods

Systems

Community population

Friends, Family, Neighbors, Other Close Associates

Areas Surrounding Homes, Workplaces, Schools, and Service Providers

Schools, NGOs, Hospitals, Businesses, Churches and Civic Groups

Government Agencies, Health Care Systems, the Media, and the School System

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Example

Children from families earning

under 125% poverty

receive appropriate vaccinations before entering school

TARGET OUTCOME:

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Example

Organizatio

ns

Personal networks

Neighborhoods

Systems

Children from families earning

under 125% poverty

PROBLEM: Caregivers don’t know vaccines are important: Caregivers take their children to the doctor to receive vaccinations

PROBLEM: Can’t locate clinicsSigns are put up alerting people to the location of local children’s clinics

PROBLEM: Clinic is opened when caregivers are workingClinics begin operating during evening hours to accommodate working parents

PROBLEM: Vaccines aren’t accessible for peopleSchools and public health systems begin integrating their services so that caregivers can access them in one location

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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 networks Friends and family members encourage low-income mothers to use free tax-preparation services

Examples of Changes in Community Conditions that can Benefit Populations

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Touchstone 4: Connect investors to strategies

Segment, prioritize, and understand interests of

investors and build ongoing relationships

with them

Develop & implement impact strategiesthat improve lives

Frame strategies as investment products and connect them to investor

interests/aspirations

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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

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Needed for impact strategy

Potential contributor with related interest

Financial support Board member connected to health care

Example 1: Connecting contributor interests with investment products

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Board member secured $75K from a pharmaceutical company, $10K from another health care company

Financial support

Board member connected to health care


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Volunteers for after-school

program

Employees of companies in

school’s neighborhood


Potential contributors with related interest


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Volunteers for after-school

program

Employees of companies in

school’s neighborhood

Adults investing time and talents in neighborhood youth


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Potential contributors with related resource

Space for tax preparation services

Organizations with accessible, unused space


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Multiple sites convenient to lower-income populations

Space for tax preparation services

Organizations with accessible, unused space


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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

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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.

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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.

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A Community Impact Plan Lays Out Your “Theory of Change”

Change incommunitycondition

Populationchange

Populationchange

Target outcome

Partnership’s mobilizing activities





Change in community

condition


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Pop

ulat

ion

Cha

nges

Com

mun

ity C

ondi

tion

Cha

nges

Tar

get

O

utc

om

e

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.

All county LE agencies adopt “pro-arrest” policy

regarding DV.

Law enforcement officers are trained in “pro-arrest”

response to DV.

Courts closely supervise

convicted DV offenders.

Businesses, hospitals, & fire departments

provide safe haven to DV victims.

DV shelters help victims assess

options, take action.

LE agencies consistently

arrest alleged DV offenders.

There’s No Room for Domestic Violence in Madison County

Theory of Change Highlights

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Children from low-income families

Language & literacy

development

Early-grade reading

proficiency

Successful middle-school

transitions

On-time high school graduation

Completion of college or advanced training

Research-based components of the issue:

Priority community issue: Helping children and youth succeed

Health & physical

development

Social, emotional & intellectual

development

Research-based components of school readiness:

A Community’s Research-based Framework for Education

Populations of special concern in this community:

Children from families with English as a second language

School readiness

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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.

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How can we deliver with scarce resources?

Be efficient

• Really leverage volunteer support

• Collaborate and share deeply with other United Ways built on a strong foundation of trust

• Use grant-funded positions

Engage the community

• Have the right investment opportunities

• Built on a case of urgency

• Relentlessly focus on improving lives in the community

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Start slow to go fast later becausebuy-in is critical

When making changes in your United Way’s business model take time to lay the necessary groundwork with:

• Your board and volunteers

• Your staff

• Partner organization staff and volunteers

Articulate “what’s in it for them”

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It’s all about managing risk

Risks of changing

–Stakeholders may not understand the new approach

–Possible short-term loss of donors and supporters

–Dissatisfaction of currently funded organizations

–Loss of staff

Risks of not changing

–UW not as effective in addressing priority community issues and changing lives

–UW becomes less relevant to the community

–Continuous loss of funds and donors

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Discussion

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In conclusion

Ask for help!

• Nearby United Ways

• United Way State Organizations

• Tools available on United Way Online

• United Way Worldwide staff:

• Roger Wood, UWW Small Cities Director [email protected]

• Mike Wood, Vice President, Field Engagement [email protected]

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Thank You

Documents

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