Connecting Your Community Impact Work and “Advancing the Common Good”

United Way WebinarNovember 7, 2007

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Today’s Agenda

• Welcome and overview

• Context and background for the new positioning

• Advancing the Common Good

• What does this mean for Community Impact Work?

• Questions

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Today’s Presenters

Alex Sanchez , Senior Vice President of Community Impact Leadership, United Way of America

Michael Durkin, CEO, Mile High United Way

Meg Bostrom, President, Public Knowledge

Katie Pritchard, Director, Impact Design and Learning, United Way of America

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Participant Outcomes

As result of this webinar, participants will:

• Understand “Advancing the Common Good” as a positioning strategy that reflects and helps direct the work

• Know that this is a way to frame the work your United Way is doing

• Be clear about what it means and doesn’t mean for your work

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Benefits

• Branding

• Public awareness

• Program and strategy support

• Building on research-based strategies

• Promising practices

• Network of practitioners

• Cost effectiveness

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Background

• The NPC metrics task force was created to help define how United Way, as a system, measures impact.

• Local United Ways were creating impact, but we couldn’t demonstrate it – no way to measure it, and thus no way to demonstrate to potential investors and partners the difference United Way is making.

• The task force set out to identify the primary areas in which United Ways are creating local impact and identify some common metrics that can be used both locally and at a system level.

• Now the pilot project will explore measures of impact and find indicators that are important.

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Task Force’s High-Level Metrics Overview (NPC endorsed November 2006)

Helping Children and Youth Achieve Their Potential

Promoting Financial Stability Among Working Families/Individuals

Promoting People’s Health

Indicators to be determined for each area.

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To what end??

Helping Children & Youth Achieve Their

Potential

Promoting Financial Stability &

Independence

Improving People’s Health

2-1-1Community Engagement

Partnerships

Community InvestmentPublic Policy

Resource Generation

Donor Relationships

The Business Framework

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What does it mean to “position” or “frame”?

• When people process information, they:

Build understandings over time and based on experience

Determine quickly what something is “about”

Rely on cues or triggers

• Therefore, descriptions of an issue have consequences for people’s understanding, including:

How they define the problem

What they see as possible solutions

Who or what they see as responsible

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Image by Rupert Sheldrake, BBC

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Image by Rupert Sheldrake, BBC

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Example: Global Warming

Weather

Adaptation

God is Responsible

Blanket of CO2

Renewable Energy

We All Have a Role

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Example: Food System

Obesity

Choices in Diet

Consumers

Food Production

Changes to Farm Bill

Citizens

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United Way

Public Understanding

Fundraiser

Individual

“Community” in a narrow sense

“Them”

Charity

Safety Net

Handout

Reflect “New” Position

?

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Challenge

• Disconnect between:

- United Way’s work, and

- Public understanding of what United Way does and stands for

• Opportunity to:

- build on the work of the NPC metrics task force

- frame the three broad areas of impact, and

- associate the impact agenda with United Way

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Methodology

System Leader Interviews/Discussions

(December 2006 – April 2007)

• Local United Way CEOs

• United Way of America Leadership Team

• United Way of America communications consultants

• Volunteer experts/board members

• National Corporate Partners

Consumer – Focus Groups (March 2007)

• Exploratory consumer focus groups (UW Investors and ACIs)

– Cincinnati

– Atlanta

– San Francisco

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Pillars: Education, Financial Stability, Health

Focus• They give you a very big document which lists all the organizations that are

served through the donation. But it's like a smorgasbord of giving opportunities. There is no sense of how things are organized or coordinated. This suggests, I mean this in a positive way, an effort on the part of United Way really trying to organize its resources rather than just disburse money hither and yon.

Prevention• I think it just refocuses the whole thing that they're trying to solve the problem

before there are problems. They're not waiting until it's a problem. They're trying to get a head start on everything.

Long-term• If I knew they were going in this direction, I'd feel like it would be teaching people

to live better, not just giving them the hand out and walking away.

Independence• They don't want to keep rescuing you. They're going to show you how to make

those changes where you can stand on your own two feet and you won't have to

go back. . . You'll be able to handle it on your own.

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Positioning: Community?

Community

• Brand equity

• Value-laden meaning for some

• Little emotional connection for others

• Too easily misconstrued as geography and buildings, rather than a community of people

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Positioning: Helping Individuals, Families?

Individual

• Emotional connection

• Individual responsibility

• Broader learning about social conditions unlikely

• Obscures systems change

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Positioning: Interdependent Collective

Individual Community Collective

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Communicating the Big Idea

Advancing the Common Good

• “United Way works on behalf of the common good…”

• “Helps make steady advances in society by identifying and addressing common problems…”

• “We all win when a child succeeds in school, when a neighborhood turns around, when families have good health and workers have solid jobs.

• “…with benefits that will ripple out to the community as a whole.”

• “…ensuring society will continue to progress and our children will have a better future.”

• “It takes the whole community working together to reach our mutual goals.”

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Common Good

Is

Connectedness

Advances us all

Interdependent

Inclusive

Proactive

Solution-oriented

Conceptual

Is Not

Altruism -- doing good

Good things for people

Charity -- greater good

Divisive

Reactive

Problem-oriented

Slogan/Tagline

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Bringing It All Together:Strategic Snapshot

“New” Position

Change agent

Systemic

Common good/Interdependence

All of us

Lasting change

Prevention

Creating opportunities

“Old” Position

Fundraiser

Individual

“Community” in a narrow sense

“Them”

Charity

Safety net

Handout

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United Way. United Way. Advancing the Common Good Advancing the Common Good

Education

• Quality child care

• School readiness

• Academic completion

• Maximized income

• Increased savings

• Financial assets for long-term stability

• Preventive / Everyday Healthcare

• Healthier Teens: Drug-free, within weight and reduced pregnancy rates

Dra

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Me

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Creating the opportunities for a good life for all by focusing on:Creating the opportunities for a good life for all by focusing on:

Community & Volunteer Engagement

Partnerships

2-1-1Community Investment

Public Policy

Donor Relationships

Resource GenerationS

tra

teg

ies

Financial Stability Health

Inclusion

Bra

nd

P

osi

tion

ing

Bra

nd

P

rom

ise

Pill

ars

of

Ad

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Purpose of the Strategies and Metrics Pilot Project

• To facilitate the sharing of effective practices and accelerate the development of new knowledge among a community of United Ways with leading strategies and/or metrics in the areas of early childhood or financial stability

• To provide models to the United Way system of effective community-level strategies and sound measures of success in the areas of early childhood or financial stability

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Deliverables

1. Feedback on a two or three simple, understandable indicators in each of the three common good areas:

• Helping children and youth achieve their potential

• Promoting financial stability that leads towards independence

• Improving people’s health

(Preliminary indicators will be developed by the end of 2007 with further input in 2008 based on pilot learnings)

2. Effective community-level strategies and sound measures of success

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Next Generation of Metrics Work

• Refine metrics for Education, Financial Stability and Health

• Vet with issue area experts

• Influence local United Ways in their selection of specific issues on which to focus

• Track the national impact of United Ways

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Strategies and Metrics Pilot Project

Focus first on early childhood and financial stability

Sites are:

- Atlanta, GA - Detroit, MI

- Baltimore, MD - Madison, WI

- Boston, MA - Palm Beach, FL

- Chattanooga, TN - Phoenix, AZ

- Charleston, NC - Salt Lake City, UT

- Denver, CO - San Francisco, CA

- Des Moines, IA - Tucson, AZ

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What Does This Mean for My Work?

• Relationship to current framework

• Useful at various stages

• Questions

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Direct services to individuals/familiesDIRECT IMPACT

Lasting changes in community conditions

COMMUNITY IMPACT

by investing in:

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Basic human-needs & crisis services

Prevention & development services

by investing in:

Community change

strategies

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Education:Helping children and youth achieve their potential

by creating opportunities in

School Readiness

High School Graduation

4th-grade Reading Skills

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•Support home visiting programs that teach parents how to promote early learning skills

by Increasing School Readiness

• Engagebusiness leaders

in advocating forinvesting in early education

• Invest in training for foster parents on promoting early learning in preschool children

• Mobilize faith leaders to motivate parent behavior that promotes early

learning

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by Increasing Housing Stability

• Invest in financial education programs offered through schools, faith communities, employers

• Promote policies increasing the supplyof affordable housing

• Support shelters for homeless families that provide links to supportive services

• Create workforce develop-ment partnerships to increase

family income

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• Provide evaluations and referrals for emergency dental care for children in homeless shelters

• Incorporate child dental health care infor-mation in parenting ed programs

• Promote dental health ed in child care centers

• Establish school-based dental clinics staffed by dental school students

• Amend state Medicaid regs to cover children’s dental care

by ImprovingChildren’s Dental Health

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Increase School Readiness

Increase Housing Stability Improve Child Dental

Health

Community Change Efforts

• Business leaders advocate for investments in early education• Faith leaders motivate

parent behavior that promotes early learning

• Policies increase the supply of affordable housing• Workforce development

partnerships increase family income

• State Medicaid regulations change to cover child dental care• Dental students staff

school-based clinics 

Prevention and

Development Services

• Home visiting programs teach parents how to promote early learning 

• Schools, faith communities, employers host financial education programs

• Parenting education programs and child care programs incorporate child dental health 

Basic Human

Needs & Crisis

Services

• Foster parents are trained to promote early learning in preschoolers

• Homeless shelters for families link them to supportive services

• Children in homeless shelters receive evaluations and referral for emergency dental care 

Advancing the Common Good by Creating Opportunities in Education, Financial Stability and Health

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How can this help?

United Way of Metropolitan Tarrant County (Ft. Worth, TX) has five areas and is considering reframing to a smaller number. Informed by future direction of the work and will see how it fits there.

United Way of Passaic County (NJ) is in the process of reorganizing focus areas and examining the appropriateness of these categories for their work in meeting the needs of their local community.

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How can this help? (continued)

United Way of Central Iowa (Des Moines) has three core areas that emanated from a community process, They match the UWA model and staff feel they will help advance alignment.

United Way of Greater Lafayette (IN) recently defined three focus areas -- health and wellness, children and families, basic needs and financial stability -- based on local conditions and research. Factored UWA direction into choice -- and it fits for Lafayette.

United Way of Delaware County (Muncie, IN) is just now establishing focus areas and sees overlap in UWA work.

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Questions and Answers

• To ask a text question:

• Click on the message line and type your question

• Click on the send icon or press enter to send the message

• OR

• To ask a “live” question:

• Press *1 on your telephone, and the operator will assist you

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Closing points

• Advancing the Common Good grew out of the efforts of the NPC Metrics Task Force to determine how the United Way system can know (by measuring) and demonstrate (by communicating) that it’s achieving its mission and vision.

• The Task Force will continue its work on strategies and measures, working with national experts and local United Ways.

• Talking about our work in these areas makes it more concrete and allows us to make the best use of resources.

• Local engagement and community assessment are still important features of the work and will help determine the appropriate target populations and emphasis in your community.

• Aligning our work will help us advance the common good.

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Additional Learning Opportunities

Connecting Volunteer Engagement and Advancing the Common Good – webinar in December

To be scheduled soon:

Connecting Public Policy and Advocacy with Advancing the Common Good

Connecting Resource Development and Advancing the Common Good

United Way Brand Forum – January 30 - February 1, Jacksonville, FL