2012 South East Regional Conference
Introduction to the United Way Business
Model: Becoming an Anchor Institution to
Drive Collective Impact
May 30, 2012
Agenda
•
Introduction to the United Way Business Model
•
Mobilization Group Experience: Lessons
Learned, United Way as a Backbone Institution,
Collective Impact
•
Moving from Conversations to Strategic Action:
How United Way of Acadiana, Lafayette, LA
Engaged Their Community
2
Introduction to the United Way Business
Model
3
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.
4
Our environment
We face internal and external challenges
•
Losing donors
•
Companies moving to “strategic philanthropy” approach
•
Overreliance on old economy business
•
Younger generations have different perspectives
•
Low public trust compared to other large nonprofits
But we also have real assets
•
Strong brand
•
Large footprint
•
Millions of supporters
•
We can and do bring people together
5
Many problems in our communities
keep getting worse
 Low-birthweight babies
 Disparities in school readiness,
school achievement
 Lack of affordable housing
 Children and families in poverty
 Personal debt and bankruptcy
 Child and adult obesity
 Lack of access to health care
6
Communities need new ways of
solving problems
• Bring organizations, people and resources
together to focus on pressing issues
• Target underlying causes
• Aim for lasting, system-level impact
• Develop holistic, research-based strategies
• Implement through coordinated, collaborative
efforts
• Mobilize individuals and institutions to create
change
7
Why was United Way losing donations and
donors?
• More nonprofits competing – generally, and in workplaces
• “Reach” of workplace campaign is shrinking
- With shift towards service businesses, more people
working in multiple, smaller businesses and locations
- More global companies that lack ties to local
communities
• Technology makes it easier to give without us
• Donor expectations are shifting: want more control, more
accountability for visible results
• Traditional role doesn’t distinguish UW in donors’ minds
- “One campaign for all” and middle-man role no longer as
valued
8
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 mobilize resources to
do it
• We’ve always been an intermediary and we still
are, but we have to add more value
9
United Way Business Model
Big Ideas :
Measured by :
Values :
Build impact strategies
in education, income,
and health that improve
lives
Lives improved
Outward facing,
engaged with the
community, committed
to community success
Frame strategies as
investment products
Segment and
understand your
markets
Connect investor
aspirations with
need/opportunity
Individuals engaged:
giving, advocating,
volunteering
Investor satisfaction
and confidence
Long-term, sustained
financial growth
Resources under
management
Accountability/
transparency
Operational Excellence
Customer-centered
Inclusiveness
Innovation/continuous
improvement
10
Executing on the 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:
Operate as an
integrated
and aligned
organization
Have the right
skills,
competencies
& leadership
11
Engage and align with the community
What it means:
• Working with a range of stakeholders to set community 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
12
Create & deepen relationships with
individuals & institutions
What it means:
• Understanding and deepening 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
13
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
14
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
15
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
16
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
17
Connecting the dots:
How the business practices support
each other for success
18
In engaging with the community:
• We identify natural leaders with whom to build deeper
relationships
• We gain info that will strengthen our community impact
strategies
• We build interest and commitment in supporting
community causes through giving, advocating and
volunteering on behalf of issues
• We therefore have people and grassroots organizations
that will be eager to support implementation
• We communicate back to the community about what
we have heard and learned
19
As we build and deepen relationships:
• Our ability to engage authentically with our
community is strengthened
• We get information to strengthen our strategies
• We build a cadre of people that are interested in
supporting community causes through giving,
advocating and volunteering on behalf of issues
• We have individuals and institutions that are able to
help with implementation
• We identify organizations that could help with
measurement
20
As we develop strategies and focus actions:
• We continue to engage with populations of concern to gain
input that strengthens our strategies
• We identify additional individual and organizational partners
and stakeholders with whom to develop relationships
• We identify resources – time, talents and treasure – needed to
implement strategies
• We inform potential investors of our learning and emerging
strategies and seek their perspectives
• We identify the roles in strategy implementation around which
United Way will align
• We identify measures of progress and results
• We communicate back to the community about what we have
heard, learned and are doing
21
As we mobilize resources:
• We identify opportunities within the strategies for
supporters to advocate and volunteer, as well as to give
• Based on deep knowledge of their interests, we connect
potential investors – members of the community with
whom we have been engaging and have developed
deep relationships – with these opportunities
• We ensure that resource mobilization is tied to
community strategies
• We prepare all United Way staff and volunteers to
recognize resource opportunities that support those
strategies
22
As we align and execute on plans and
strategies:
• We continue engaging with the community to gain
their ongoing perspectives on strategy implementation
and impact
• We continue deepening relationships with
implementation partners through close coordination
and sharing of accountability, responsibility, and credit
• We realign our investments in support of community
impact strategies
• We identify new resources needed for strategy
success
• We use measurement data to learn and improve
23
As we measure, evaluate & communicate
results:
• We set objectives and measure progress for
engaging with the community, managing
relationships, developing strategies, mobilizing
resources, and aligning United Way against
community goals
• We identify specific engagements and relationships
needed to understand and act on measurement
findings
• We improve our community impact strategies
• We communicate progress and results to those we
have engaged in the community and to those who
have provided resources
24
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
25
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 toward lasting community change
•
Diversification of revenue streams – include foundation and
government grants, targeted sponsorships, planned gifts, etc.
•
Technology – new relationship-management tools; new platforms to
enable individual giving, advocacy, and volunteering; back
office/financial systems for a new era
•
Full organizational integration – functional teams must work
seamlessly
•
Network collaboration – we must operate as a truly interdependent
network that coordinates appropriately
26
Small size not necessarily a disadvantage
Smaller size often means:
• Greater agility
• Quicker buy-in
• Stronger connections to community resources
• Closer relationships with stakeholders
27
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?
28
Mobilization Group Experience:
Lessons Learned
United Way as a Backbone Institution
Collective Impact
29
Mobilization Groups: What and Why
What: Action and results-oriented groups that are designed to
build local United Way capacity to achieve one of their
community’s goals by enhancing their ability to mobilize others
to care about the issue and act on it.
Why: So a strategic segment of United Ways are driving
results on the 2018 Goals for the Common Good.
30
The Goals for Mobilization Groups
Mobilization Group United Ways are committed and
actively executing to:
• Make progress on goals in education, income
and health
• Engage more people and institutions in their
work
• Raise more revenue and resources
31
Mobilization Group Accomplishments
• Sites are learning to turn outward. Community conversations
have become an important pivot point:
– Creating new roles and credibility for UW.
– Talking with people UW would never have spoken with before
– Creating new engagement opportunities and opening doors that
were previously closed.
• 76 conversations with 896 participants nationwide became the
basis for the National Town Hall Report on Education.
• The public knowledge gained is being used in messaging and
communications.
• Sites are building confidence and taking risks.
• Sites are realigning staff and processes in response to what
they are learning.
32
What We’ve Learned
• The business practices are holding firm and proving to be true.
• A committed and engaged CEO who is willing to share
leadership and deal with ambiguity is critical.
• Those sites who engage their volunteers as part of the process
have benefited.
• Requires the ability to balance innovation and planning,
utilizing both appropriately.
• Relationship management is a core key competency; Ability to
attract new supporters and partners and keep them engaged.
• Having community strategies that can truly add up to achieve
desired results remains a major paradigm shift.
33
Key Learning
There are three critical first steps that propel United Ways:
•
Leadership Commitment to Community Impact
•
Turning Outward to the Community
•
Public Commitment to an Issue
34
Leadership Commitment Means:
•
Organizational professional & volunteer leadership state
and become personally involved in turning outward
•
Identify and understand the issues and the process
•
Identify champions; create cross functional teams
•
Commitment to lasting change is evident in written
mission, vision, goals
•
Holding yourself accountable – build into all competencies
of the organization
35
Turning Outward Means:
•
Build aspiration-based community conversations into the
organizational structure at all levels
•
Use this public knowledge to inform the development of
strategies
•
Share what is heard across the community and with
community partners
•
Create messages that reflect community aspirations and
concerns
•
Create ongoing ways to listen to others
•
Identify other boundary spanning organizations for
partnership
36
Public Commitment Means:
•
Caring about an issue – making a promise to yourself
•
Asking others what they think about the issue, and sharing
what you hear
•
Gathering interested people together to work on the issue
•
With others, declaring a goal and strategies for success
•
Being clear about United Way’s role in the overall
community effort
•
Holding yourself accountable – keeping your promises to
yourself, your partners and your community
37
Emerging Pathway to Mobilization
38
Collective Impact Defined
The commitment of a group of important actors from different
sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social
problem.
39
The Five Conditions of Collective Impact
Common Agenda
All participants have a shared vision for change
including a common understanding of the problem and
a joint approach to solving it through agreed upon
actions.
Shared
Measurement
Collecting data and measuring results consistently across
all participants ensures efforts remain aligned and
participants hold each other accountable.
Mutually
Reinforcing
Activities
Participant activities must be differentiated while still being
coordinated through a mutually reinforcing plan of action.
Continuous
Communication
Consistent and open communication is needed across the
many players to build trust, assure mutual objectives, and
create common motivation.
Backbone
Support
Creating and managing collective impact requires a
separate organization(s) with staff and a specific set
of skills to serve as the backbone for the entire initiative
and coordinate participating organizations and agencies.
40
Isolated vs. Collective Impact
Isolated impact
Collective Impact
• Funders select individual
grantees that offer the most
promising solutions.
• Nonprofits work separately
and compete to produce the
greatest independent impact.
• Evaluation attempts to isolate
a particular organization’s
impact.
• Large scale change is
assumed to depend on scaling
a single organization.
• Corporate and government
sectors are often disconnected
from the efforts of foundations
and nonprofits
• Funders understand that
social problems and their
solutions arise from the
interaction of many
organizations within a larger
system.
• Progress depends on working
toward the same goal and
measuring the same things.
• Large scale impact depends
on increasing cross-sector
alignment and learning among
many organizations.
• Corporate and government
sectors are essential partners
• Organizations actively
coordinate their action and
share lessons learned.
41
Phases of Collective Impact
Components
for Success
Phase I
Phase II
Phase III
Governance
and
Infrastructure
Identify champions
and form crosssector group
Create infrastructure Facilitate and refine
(backbone and
processes)
Strategic
Planning
Map the landscape
and use data to
make case
Create common
agenda (goals and
strategy)
Community
Involvement
Evaluation and
Improvement
Support
implementation
(alignment to goals
and strategies)
Facilitate community Engage community
outreach
and build public will
Continue
engagement and
conduct advocacy
Analyze baseline
data to identify key
issues and gaps
Collect, track, and
report progress
(process to learn
and improve)
Establish shared
metrics (indicators,
measurement, and
approach)
42
Collective Impact in Action
• Strive has brought together local leaders to tackle the
student achievement crisis and improve education
throughout greater Cincinnati and northern Kentucky.
• A core group of community leaders decided to abandon
their individual agendas in favor of a collective approach to
improving student achievement.
• These leaders realized that fixing one point on the
educational continuum--such as better after school
programs--wouldn’t make much difference unless all parts
of the continuum improved at the same time.
• Strive focused the entire educational community on a
single set of goals.
43
Role of the Backbone Organization
• Creating and managing collective impact requires a
separate organization and staff with a very specific set of
skills to serve as the backbone for the entire initiative
• Funders, community foundations, government agencies
and United Ways can all fill the backbone role
• The backbone organization is not necessarily the lead
organization for the initiative
44
Functions of a Backbone Organization
• Provide overall strategic direction
• Facilitating dialogue between partners
• Managing data collection and analysis
• Handling communications
• Coordinating community outreach
• Mobilizing funding
45
Backbone Organizations
Types of
Backbones
Description
Examples
Pros
Cons
One funder initiates
CI strategy as
planner, financier,
and convener
Calgary
Homeless
Foundation
Ability to secure start-up funding
and recurring resources
Ability to bring others to the table
and leverage other funders
Lack of broad buy-in if CI effort seen as
driven by one funder
Lack of perceived neutrality
New entity is created,
often by private
funding, to serve as
backbone
Community
Center for
Education
Results
Perceived neutrality as facilitator
and convener
Potential lack of baggage
Clarity of focus
Lack of sustainable funding stream and
potential questions about funding priorities
Potential competition with local nonprofits
Credibility, clear ownership, and
strong understanding of issue
Existing infrastructure in place if
properly resourced
Potential “baggage” and lack of perceived
neutrality
Lack of attention if poorly funded
Government entity,
Shape Up
Government either at local or state Somerville
level, drives CI effort
Public sector “seal of approval”
Existing infrastructure in place if
properly resourced
Bureaucracy may slow progress
Public funding may not be dependable
Shared
Numerous
Across
organizations take
Multiple
ownership of CI wins
Organization
Senior-level
Steering
committee with
Committee
ultimate decisionDriven
making power
Lower resource requirements if
shared across multiple
organizations
Broad buy-in, expertise
Broad buy-in from senior leaders
across public, private, and
nonprofit sectors
Lack of clear accountability with multiple
voices at the table
Coordination challenges, leading to
potential inefficiencies
Lack of clear accountability with multiple
voices
FunderBased
New
Nonprofit
Existing
Nonprofit
Established nonprofit Opportunity
takes the lead in
Chicago
coordinating CI
strategy
Magnolia
Place
Memphis
Fast
Forward
46
Discussion
Do you think the collective impact approach would help your
community address community issues in a more
comprehensive way?
Could your United Way fill the backbone role for an initiative in
your community?
Who else in the community could fill the backbone role?
47
Moving from Conversations to Strategic
Action: How United Way of Acadiana,
Lafayette, LA Engaged Their Community
48
Getting Started
• Issue: High school graduation rate of 68% and lowest among
African American males and children of poverty
• Partnership: Formed LaPESC, a coalition of key stakeholders
• Vision: To ensure a world-class education for every student in
every public school with sufficient resources to unlock their
transformative abilities so that 100% of our students reach their full
potential and graduate from high school prepared to succeed.
• Barriers: To realize our vision, LaPESC identified the barriers to
educational attainment: low academic expectations for children of
poverty; lack of trust in the school system; school leaders out-oftouch and insensitive to community concerns to secondary
education; citizens had no real outlet to effectively voice their
concerns about the state of public education.
49
LaPESC’s Community Goals
Immediate:
1. Provide an opportunity for the community’s voice to be heard on
public education issues that most concern them
2. Engage community members to share in the accountability for
education outcomes
3. Build public awareness to leverage political will
4. Bring in a reform-minded superintendent who is held accountable
by the board for district performance and who supports the
LaPESC vision of 100% of children graduating
Intermediate:
5. 90% of students perform on grade level by 2016
6. 90% graduation rate by 2016
50
UW of Acadiana Makes Turning Outward a
Way of Operating
The Situation:
• When the United Way joined the Education Mobilization Group,
they thought they had a pretty sound grasp of what was going on
in their community. But after attending the Harwood Public
Innovators Lab, they learned what turning outward really meant
and it opened their horizons to new possibilities for engaging
with their community.
• Now community engagement is at the core of all of LaPESC’s
strategies and provides the group with credibility and authority to
advocate on behalf of all residents.
51
United Way of Acadiana, Lafayette, LA
The Solution:
• Faced with a very important upcoming school board election in
Lafayette Parish, they first used conversations to ask people their
aspirations for the community around education
• UW and its partners in the LaPESC took what they had heard and
used it to host a series of public forums with School Board
candidates and frame the questions asked.
52
United Way of Acadiana, Lafayette, LA
The Solution (continued):
• UW created a corporate call notepad with 5 questions about
philanthropic goals, what kind of community they wanted to see
and what changes they thought needed to be made to achieve
that.
• After attending the Harwood Lab and experiencing a few
community conversations, the 2010 campaign video was modified
to made it totally focused on community people sharing their real
aspirations and concerns for the community.
53
United Way of Acadiana, Lafayette, LA
The Solution (continued):
• One of the first steps for rethinking their volunteer center was to
have conversations with groups of stakeholders
• As a member of VOAD the UW CEO was able to provide direction
following an oil spill disaster.
• As part of the June, 2011 Day of Action, three dozen volunteers
were trained and conducted “Ask Acadiana” interviews focused on
education at 3 different sites: a university; a community college
and downtown in the corporate sector.
54
United Way of Acadiana, Lafayette, LA
Impact and Results:
• Set an ambitious goal of reaching out to a diverse 5% of their
community over the course of two years to ask people about their
aspirations for their community.
• By mid 2011, they had held 22 “official” community conversations
involving over two hundred people. But they have also engaged
hundreds more in the more informal conversation opportunities.
55
United Way of Acadiana, Lafayette, LA
Impact and Results (continued):
• Lafayette superintendent approached the United Way to partner
with them on their 100+ Volunteer effort to get more community
members actively engaged in the schools.
• Since this kind of partnership directly aligned with both United
Way’s new volunteer engagement strategy and their education
strategy around early grade reading, they saw great value and
now are implementing a very active partnership.
56
United Way of Acadiana, Lafayette, LA
Impact and Results (continued):
• By sharing publicly what they have heard from the community
about aspirations and education, the United Way is increasingly
recognized as having both issue expertise and firsthand
knowledge of the community and public will.
• When the Lafayette superintendent recently announced that he
was resigning, the local newspaper called on the UW CEO to
give an opinion on what the community might be looking for in a
new superintendent.
• The school board decided to then hold public forums on this topic
and United Way offered and was ultimately accepted to facilitate
all those meetings.
57
United Way of Acadiana, Lafayette, LA
Lessons Learned:
• Asking people about their aspirations for their families and for
their community was much more powerful than any traditional
needs assessment
• It forces people to give very personal perspectives and not
speculate about others.
• It also engages people to think about solutions and not focus on
deficits and what is wrong.
• United Way learned that “surfacing and assisting the community
to find the issues and then giving them a way to act” is really the
path to mobilizing for impact.
58
United Way of Acadiana, Lafayette, LA
Lessons Learned (continued):
• Turning Outward is so much more than just community
conversations. The conversations are but one tool that helps get
you going. Once you gain confidence, you can create all kinds of
way to use this concept across all facets of the United Way’s
work.
• In the beginning, this work seemed like an add-on. Once they got
some initial conversations underway and saw the power if it, the
staff and board began asking themselves about turning outward
as the first step in every piece of their work.
• At first they had to create a very intentional plan and map
out/assign when and where to do conversations. But over time
and with discipline, it became a very natural, normal way and then
essential part of doing all their work.
59
How to move from conversations to action
as a mobilizing anchor institution
United Way learns
what people care
about, how they think
about issues.
United Way and
community gather
data and research
about issues.
United Way
listens to the
community
United Way,
Community
and Leaders
share what
they heard
Decision Point
Develop
strategies
and focus
actions
Is there alignment
around a cause?
Is United Way the right entity to be
mobilizing backbone institution?
Engage and
align with the
community
Create &
deepen
relationships
with
individuals &
institutions
Mobilize
resources
Align and
execute on
plans and
strategies
Measure,
evaluate &
communicate
results
60
Discussion
Is the United Way filling the role of the backbone organization
for the initiative?
Does the work of the initiative reflect the concepts of collective
impact?
Has your United Way conducted community conversations in
your community?
If so, what has been the impact of these conversations?
61
Tools & Resources
• Resources and tools from The Harwood Institute
http://online.unitedway.org/harwood
• Mobilization Jumpstart
http://online.unitedway.org/mobilization_jumpstart
• Engage and Align with a Community Around a Cause
http://online.unitedway.org/index2.cfm?aid=6619
• How Lafayette Engaged Their Community
http://online.unitedway.org/index2.cfm?aid=6669
• United Way Worldwide Contacts
Michael Wood – [email protected]
Roger Wood – [email protected]
62
The Community Leaders Conference
Virtual Conference and Digital Portfolio
Watch keynote presentations with your team
Access video of more than 40 sessions
Download powerpoints and executive summaries of 100 learning
sessions
The Virtual Conference is being offered at a reduced rate of
$195 for in-person attendees and is only $350 for non-attendees.
Thank You
64