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

1. Connecting Your Community Impact Work and “Advancing the Common Good” United Way Webinar November 7, 2007

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. Benefits • Branding • Public awareness • Program and strategy support • Building on research-based strategies • Promising practices • Network of practitioners • Cost effectiveness

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. To what end?? Promoting Financial Stability & Independence Helping Children & Youth Achieve Their Potential Improving People’s Health Community Engagement Resource Generation Partnerships 2-1-1 Donor Relationships Community Investment Public Policy The Business Framework

9. 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

10. Image by Rupert Sheldrake, BBC

11. Image by Rupert Sheldrake, BBC

12. Weather Adaptation God is Responsible Blanket of CO2 Renewable Energy We All Have a Role Example: Global Warming

13. Obesity Choices in Diet Consumers Food Production Changes to Farm Bill Citizens Example: Food System

14. Public Understanding Fundraiser Individual “Community” in a narrow sense “Them” Charity Safety Net Handout Reflect “New” Position ? United Way

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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.

18. Community Positioning: 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

19. Positioning: Helping Individuals, Families? • Emotional connection • Individual responsibility • Broader learning about social conditions unlikely • Obscures systems change Individual

20. Community Individual Positioning: Interdependent Collective Collective

21. 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.”

22. 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 Common Good

23. “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 Bringing It All Together:Strategic Snapshot

24. United Way. Advancing the Common Good Brand Positioning Creating the opportunities for a good life for all by focusing on: Brand Promise Health Education Financial Stability Pillars of Advancement • Maximized income • Increased savings • Financial assets for • long-term stability draft draft draft • Preventive / Everyday Healthcare • Healthier Teens: Drug-free, within weight and reduced pregnancy rates • Quality child care • School readiness • Academic completion Draft Measurement Areas Community & Volunteer Engagement Community Investment Donor Relationships 2-1-1 Strategies Resource Generation Inclusion Public Policy Partnerships

25. 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

26. Deliverables • 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. What Does This Mean for My Work? • Relationship to current framework • Useful at various stages • Questions

30. Improving lives by investing in: COMMUNITY IMPACT Lasting changes in community conditions DIRECT IMPACT Direct services to individuals/families

31. Advancing the Common Good by investing in: Community change strategies Prevention & development services Basic human-needs & crisis services

33. Advancing the Common Good by creating opportunities in Education: Helping children and youth achieve their potential School Readiness 4th-grade Reading Skills High School Graduation

34. Advancing the Common Good by Increasing School Readiness • Engage • business leaders • in advocating for • investing in early education • Mobilize faith leaders to motivate • parent behavior that promotes early • learning • Support home visiting programs that teach parents how to promote early learning skills • Invest in training for foster parents on promoting early learning in preschool children

35. Advancing the Common Good by Increasing Housing Stability • Promote policies • increasing the supply • of affordable housing • Create workforce develop- • ment partnerships to increase • family income • Invest in financial education programs offered through schools, faith communities, employers • Support shelters for homeless families that provide links to supportive services

36. Advancing the Common Good by Improving Children’s Dental Health • Amend state • Medicaid regs to • cover children’s • dental care • • Establish school-based • dental clinics staffed by dental school students • Incorporate child dental health care infor-mation in parenting ed programs • Promote dental health ed in child care centers • Provide evaluations and referrals for emergency dental care for children in homeless shelters

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

38. 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.

39. 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.

40. 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 ?

41. 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.

42. 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