True Champions aren’t just made in gyms

Submitted by United Way Australia, 27 Mar 2013

When most people think of champions, they think of athletes, local heroes and sporting stars, but at United Way champions to us are the dedicated individuals, working within our corporate partners, who go are committed to making a positive impact in the community.

The champions we know manage to do their 9-5 jobs as well as finding the time to raise awareness about community issues and encourage their colleagues to give, advocate and volunteer.

Muhammad Ali once said “Champions aren’t made in gyms.  Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision.” And I couldn’t agree more.

Last week I had the privilege of facilitating a group of 30 community champions from 14 of our corporate partners.  This was the third time we have brought our champions together- read more about the learnings and outcomes of the training and networking sessions in 2012.

I was (once again) blown away the energy, enthusiasm and creativity of our champions.   Some of the champions were community veterans and had been promoting volunteering and workplace giving within their organisations for the last six years, whereas others were completely new to the ‘role’  and eager to get stuck in.

As well as spending time networking and sharing their challenges and successes, the champions are also driving us to deliver high-level content on how they can set goals, better engage their colleagues, share our strategy and learn more about the impact they can make in the communities we support.

I’m excited to see what our champions will achieve in the year ahead – and look forward to updating you further on their progress.

Lyndsey Mckee – Corporate Partnerships Manager

Tags: Champion, Collective impact, community, Community Champions, Community Conversation, Community Impact, Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, Employee engagement, employee retention, impact, United Way, volunteering

Comments

1. Shannon Carruth says:

   March 28, 2013 at 12:25

   Great initiative from United Way to support the amazing people we have within our companies who are really the ones who drive the rest of the staff to make a difference. Thank you for including our staff in this great program to help build their skills in this area and to keep them inspired an connected to the issues.
2. Astrid says:

   April 26, 2013 at 00:09

   Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text
   in your article seem to be running off the screen in Ie.
   I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with web browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know.
   The design and style look great though! Hope you get the issue solved soon.
   Thanks
3. United Way Australia says:

   May 8, 2013 at 20:20

   Thanks Astrid – we will look in to this. Appreciate the feedback!

Why business leaders should get out more; lessons from the outer suburbs

Submitted by United Way Australia, 25 Mar 2013

With all of the shenanigans that have been going on in Canberra in recent times you could easily be excused for ‘switching off’ at the mere mention of any of our political leaders. This is totally understandable but also a shame because sometimes we can throw the baby out with the bathwater. Take for example the PM’s visit to Western Sydney, it’s easy to be cynical about the politics of this but the principle of leaders listening first-hand to people in these often overlooked communities is a good one. And here’s something you may not have considered: Leaders of Australian Corporations would do well to follow the PM’s example and spend some time in the outer suburbs of our cities. This would bring insights to businesses and opportunities to provide support to communities grappling with significant social and economic challenges.

As a resident of a suburb on the fringe of south western Sydney, I travel every day to the CBD and know only too well the tremendous potential in these communities. In many ways they represent the future Australia – in 2010/11 the ABS found that the outer suburbs represented two thirds of the growth in the Australian population. These suburbs are characterised by many young families settling for greater housing affordability, young adults choosing to stay close to home and start their careers and new migrants investing their skills and capabilities in the local economies. All of this is borne out in the entrepreneurial energy of these communities which are the heartland for business in Australia.

Corporate leaders would do well to take notice of the opportunities these communities present to Australia because it’s in the outer suburbs that they will find their future customers with their increased discretionary income, their future skilled workforce will the have the luxury of choice in a labour market fighting for the right skills and a growing group of small businesses ready to compete as suppliers.

Of course the picture in the outer suburbs of our cities isn’t all rosy. As we keep hearing, there are significant infrastructure challenges that make it difficult for residents in outer suburbs to access goods and services and to commute to work every day- and they’re just a few of the challenges! A good number of these communities would be classified as disadvantaged and we know that only 43 per cent of kids from disadvantaged communities will continue into higher education. One in three will leave school without any career prospects. If the new frontier in our national economic debate is going to focus on improving productivity then here’s the low hanging fruit.

Australia is surprisingly one of the most urbanised communities in the world. Focusing on our outer suburbs will be critical to strengthening the social and economic capital of our cities. These issues are not solely the domain of our political leaders but require the attention and commitment of corporate leaders. Why?  Because you can’t operate a successful business in a failed community. I’m sure most of our corporate leaders know all this but seeing the potential and the challenges of our outer suburbs is a different thing altogether. You could do this by having your next executive retreat in one of these communities, commuting with some of your employees one day to work or getting to know your future workforce through one of the local high schools. Perhaps the PM’s onto something in getting first-hand experience in the Rooty Hill’s of Australian cities.

Doug Taylor – CEO, United Way Australia

Tags: Australia's outer suburbs, Collective impact, Community Impact, corporate engagement, Corporate Social Responsibility, corporate volunteering, CSR, Employee engagement, Evidence-based need, Outer Suburbs Sydney, professional volunteering, Rooty Hill, Social Exclusion, social return, Sydney, United Way

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Are We Creating a Philanthropic Monoculture?

Submitted by United Way Australia, 20 Mar 2013

As recently posted by Philanthropy Australia, our CEO Doug Taylor looks to explore the question “Is philanthropy in Australia creating a mono-cultural sector that unintentionally excludes others who may genuinely want to ‘give back’?”

I have thought for a while that philanthropy in Australia is all a bit too nice and virtuous. If you look at the Philanthropic Sector in our country you would have to agree that it’s full of thoroughly decent, well intentioned and polite individuals going about their work of doing good with modesty and humility.

Don’t get me wrong- these are wonderful qualities and a great counterbalance to the cut and thrust of the world of politics and commerce. However my concern is that by creating a mono-cultural sector we unintentionally exclude others who may genuinely want to ‘give back’ but sometimes have a quite different cultural disposition and set of internal drivers.

We have lots of room to grow philanthropy in Australia so it’s worth thinking about groups that we may want to intentionally include by creating new entry pathways. A group that comes to mind for me are celebrities. Why should we consider them as a priority target group? To be blunt, they have money and the capacity to influence popular culture like very few of our current philanthropic ‘super stars’.

My work at United Way brings me into close contact with American philanthropy. We hear endlessly about the many historical and cultural differences that explain their scale of philanthropy relative to Australia.

Over the summer break I got to thinking about the importance of philanthropic celebrities as an overlooked explanation while listening to a repeat interview Geraldine Doogue did with Robert Forrester, the head of the Newman’s Own Foundation (http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/robert-forres…).

This is a foundation created by the late actor Paul Newman which combined philanthropy and social enterprise. He did this by creating and marketing a series of Salad Dressings (I can personally vouch for the Balsamic Vinegar) with all profits going to create community benefit which to date totals over US$340m. Newman is not alone; take Dolly Parton as another example. I have now met Dolly (and yes been to her concert) a few times as part of a new child literacy strategy we are rolling out in Australia with her foundation and Rotary International. Like Newman she combines an unquestionable philanthropic drive with outstanding business acumen and a good dose of self promotion.

The evidence is there for Dolly’s work (https://imaginationlibrary.com/) ; amidst her entertainment empire she has created impressive community outcomes with 650,000 children under 5 across the US, UK and Canada receiving books in partnership with Penguin International. Newman would often refer to his Salad Dressing endeavours as ‘shameless exploitation for the common good.’ Seems to be a good summary of celebrity philanthropy and my sense is that one of the biggest barriers to greater involvement of celebrities in Australia is the philanthropic sector itself.

Can we get over our cultural cringe and accept that celebrities can bring enormous benefit in new income but more importantly also increase profile and help mainstream philanthropy? While we are at it, it might also be a good idea to acknowledge that self interest is infused in everybody’s philanthropic endeavours. Perhaps by acknowledging this we can better accommodate celebrities.

As CEO of United Way Australia Doug Taylor is focused on creating and developing its Community Impact strategy, which addresses the education, income and health needs of local communities. He’s currently a member of the United Way Worldwide membership accountability committee and is responsible for the organisation’s Asia Pacific corporate development strategy. He is active in the broader community sector through Emerging Leaders for Social Change and has sat on the Commonwealth’s Volunteer Policy Advisory Groups.

Tags: Collective impact, Community Impact, community investment, Dolly Parton's Imagination, Imagination Library, impact, leadership, Not for profit, Philanthropy, Philanthropy Australia, United Way

Comments

1. Karin says:

   March 21, 2013 at 14:25

   Perhaps it’s my North American (Canada) background but I absolutely agree with your article. Frankly who cares why people are helping in philanthropic endeavours,as long as they are helping. I think I might be in a minority in saying that we should be encouraging the ‘movers and shakers’, celebrities or not, to promote philanthropy with Paul Newman’s attitude. If I try to get hold of high profiled people to move the cause, I, frankly don’t have a voice. If celebrities make a call we’d have media coverage! Flaunt it for all it’s worth if it can make a difference in someone’s life. There is a lot being done by good people in Australia, not enough people know about it. If they did, more would join in!

Taking our first steps towards helping kids ReadLearnSucceed

Submitted by United Way Australia, 19 Mar 2013

Last Thursday the first Australian child signed up to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library; the creation of country music sensation, Dolly Parton, and the cornerstone for United Way Australia’s early literacy strategy, ReadLearnSucceed.

Charlie was one of eight children from Acacia Ridge (about 25km from the Brisbane CBD) who signed up for the program on the day.  This small, but momentous, step was the result of eighteen months of brainstorming, planning, researching, and phone conferencing across United Ways throughout Australia (and, at times, the United States).

Dolly Parton developed the Imagination Library after initiating a free book distribution program in her hometown, Sevier County, Tennessee, in 1996.  Today, the Imagination Library, with the support of the Dollywood Foundation, is working across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom to foster a love of reading and to improve literacy for children between the ages of birth and five years.

When United Way Australia was presented with the opportunity to take a lead from our North American counterparts and present the Imagination Library in communities across Australia, we started working on a plan; the first step, three pilots with one each in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.  In Brisbane, we were very lucky to receive a substantial grant from the Sunnybank Community & Sports Centre.  When they asked us how we could support a disadvantaged community in their area, we looked to Acacia Ridge – a community that stood to benefit a great deal from United Way Australia’s Read Learn Succeed strategy.

75% of five year olds in Acacia Ridge are developmentally vulnerable or developmentally at risk when it comes to literacy – this means that the vast majority of children are starting school well behind where they should be.  Over the past six months, we have been meeting with educators, children, residents and parents from Acacia Ridge.  This statistic is well known in the community and there is a great sense of solidarity when it comes to working out how to help these children start day one at school at their full potential.

The community is not deterred by this statistic –there is a promising sentiment of determination and a great energy among community organisations, including The Benevolent Society and several local Kindergartens and childcare centres who have all provided invaluable contacts and support for the program launch.

From the middle of this year, Acacia Ridge’s youngest generation will start receiving a Penguin classic book with their name on it in the post, every month until they are 5 years old. This will include many favourites, among them several Pamela Allen books and other well known titles including Mem Fox & Judy Horacek’s ‘Where is the Green Sheep?’ and Eric Carle’s ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’.

Alongside Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, United Way Australia will be running community reading events and providing parents, families and other interested community members with the tools they need to be positive reading role models and specifically use these books to give the young children in their lives the best start possible.

Tags: Collective impact, Community Impact, community investment, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, Early Age Education, early childhood literacy, Education, Imagination Library, impact, Literacy, Queensland, Read Learn Succeed, ReadLearnSucceed, United Way

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Creating impact through volunteering – our Corporate Connect® journey: part 5

Submitted by United Way Australia, 6 Mar 2013

In this fifth blog on corporate volunteering, we discuss the impact the last ten years of our unskilled team volunteering program has had on ourselves, United Way Australia, and how we have used this to deepen our engagement with our corporate partners, their employees and our communities, to create greater impact for all these stakeholders.

Back in 2009 United Way produced a report with the Centre for Social Impact, Common Cause, looking at Sydney’s key social issues. Looking through the lens of United Way’s Community Impact strategy focusing on Income, Education and Health and building on this evidence United Way identified innovative and collaborative strategies.

In 2012, over 500 corporate volunteers told us they want to volunteer again. In addition, 56% told us they want to volunteer more and make a larger contribution. This desire fits in well with the new United Way Community Impact Strategy that is based on a collective impact approach , bringing collaborations of interested people and organisations together. United Way has built in opportunities for corporate volunteers to do more, engage more deeply and make greater impacts.

The new volunteering approaches United Way has developed to support the Community Impact strategy are Engaged Volunteering and Strategic Volunteering.

Engaged volunteering provides opportunities for corporate volunteers to use their personal and professional skills, to mentor and motivate Year 10 high school students. Focusing on our more vulnerable communities where many families don’t have a history of working, this exposure to professional working people is helping students to stay focused at school and plan for positive pathways after school.

Volunteers have told us after workshops, “we certainly got more than we gave today and it was a real privilege to be at the workshop.”

Early evaluations are showing that the impact goes two ways and students too are benefiting, with 93% of students who were unclear about their pathway post school had clarified their intention to go into secure, productive pathways by the end of the program.

Strategic volunteering, is another type of volunteering United Way has developed to enable executives to use their skills and influence to create Community Impact outcomes. Coalitions of corporate, community and government leaders have been formed to address the strategic issues affecting an identified focus area. A great example is the Homelessness Coalition, which we’ve previously written about – see blog.

Partners for Impact is another strategic volunteering program that provides executives from the corporate and community sector the opportunity to work together on a business issue posed by the community partner in a year long collaboration. As the first year winds up, there has been acknowledgement on both sides of the value of the program, “we’ve had really useful conversations. My corporate partner mentor asks “cut-through” questions to pull out the [employee] traits and she’s spot on with her assessments – she has a bit of a gift.’

With equally powerful feedback from the corporate partner mentors about their experience, we are set to offer this program for a second year in Sydney and also launch it in Melbourne in the coming months.

Community impact is a journey, just as innovation and collaboration is a journey, underpinned by the experience of all those involved. United Way’s role in gathering the evidence, getting the community projects going and harnessing the resources to achieve the outcomes is showing early wins in creating community impact.

Gabrielle Kay – Corporate Partnerships Manager

Click the following links to view the other blogs in this series – Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Tags: Collective impact, community, Community Impact, Corporate Social Responsibility, corporate volunteering, CSR, employee retention, engagement, leadership, professional volunteering, social return, team events, team volunteering, United Way, volunteering

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Creating impact through volunteering – our Corporate Connect® journey: part 4

Submitted by United Way Australia, 4 Mar 2013

When United Way first started organising corporate team volunteering projects back in 2003 it was about showing workplace giving donors the work our community partners were doing and helping them in other ways through our unskilled team volunteering program. This unskilled team volunteering program has grown to support over 60 community partners across Australia in 2012.

In this fourth blog we reflect on the impact of volunteering for our community partners, through a case study with a long term partner, Pathways Early Childhood Intervention. Pathways ECI is a small community organisation in Sydney’s inner west supporting families with children with disabilities.

The early Corporate Connect projects at Pathways ECI spruced the outdoor areas, creating sensory gardens and helping with other jobs the Pathways ECI staff and parents using their services just didn’t have the time to do.

Sylvana Mahmic, CEO, Pathways Early Childhood Intervention, says “the impact of the many Corporate Connect volunteering projects is more significant than the physical work that has been done. For the families who use Pathways ECI services, they are struck that businesses and their employees would choose to volunteer for an organisation they have no relationship with. This is powerful for these parents who are in difficult situations, as well as the staff members supporting the families.”

Sylvana describes the long United Way relationship as one that has provided practical, professional and emotional support. She thinks back to the start when they use to operate from a demountable building with an annual budget of $200,000. Today Pathways ECI is a $1.6m organisation with 18 full and part time staff, providing services to 150 families. Sylvana says, “you can’t develop an organisation by yourself. I count my lucky stars that United Way and their corporate partners have directly contributed to the organisations success. Everyone has a part to play.”

Tags: Collective impact, community, Community Impact, Corporate Social Responsibility, corporate volunteering, CSR, Employee engagement, engagement, impact, Pathways Eary Childhood Intervention, team events, team volunteering, United Way, volunteering

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Creating impact through volunteering – our Corporate Connect® journey: part 3

Submitted by United Way Australia, 27 Feb 2013

In this third blog reflecting on the impact of ten years of United Way’s Corporate Connect team volunteering, we examine the impact for the businesses supporting their employees to volunteer.

With another 195 Corporate Connect team volunteering projects succesfully completed in 2012 we were keen to understand the impact of this program for the businesses supporting their employees to volunteer.

With responses from over 500 of the 3,000 corporate volunteers, an impressive 94% reported they are more willing to contribute to the business as a result of being given an opportunity by their company to volunteer. Whilst this one question does not substitute for a full employee engagement survey, it does give a strong indication that there is an alignment between corporate supported volunteering and employee engagement.

In the first two blogs in this series, we reported how United Way’s Corporate Connect program is aligning employee’s and business’ values to give back and make a difference in our local communities.

Whether it is engaged employees that volunteer or employees becoming more engaged when their company supports them to volunteer, we do not know definitely. What is clear is the global and Australian research reporting a strong relationship between employee engagement and business performance.  The 2011 Macquarie Economics Research ESG report references global research findings of 16% higher profitability, 12% higher customer satisfaction ratings, lower staff turnover, fewer safety incidents, fewer quality issues, as well as similar trends in Australia. The business case on employee engagement is clear.

The companies United Way partner with make a commitment to ensuring their employees create an impact by working with United Way’s national team of corporate volunteering managers who identify community needs, put together a fully scoped project, so that volunteers have a safe, fun and meaningful volunteering experience. We know our project management works, as 100% of volunteers said again in 2012 that they would recommend a United Way team volunteering project to their colleagues. As well, 99% of volunteers rate highly their volunteering experience with United Way.

Corporate partners who work with United Way are doing more than giving their consent for employees to have a day off to volunteer. These businesses are investing in their employees and the communities in which they live and work. The evidence is strong that the investment in United Way’s Corporate Connect team volunteering pays off for the business.

In the final blog we explore how United Way has developed this volunteering journey to create greater impact for the employees, business and the community. Before we get there we will go back in our next blog to the community and share their perspectives on corporate volunteering.

Gabrielle Kay – Corporate Partnerships Manager

Click the following links to view the other blogs in this series – Part 1 Part 2 – Part 4 Part 5

Tags: Collective impact, Community Impact, corporate volunteering, CSR, Employee engagement, employee retention, Not for profit, social return, team events, team volunteering, United Way, volunteering

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Partners for Impact – realising the knowledge-sharing benefits of mentoring

Submitted by United Way Australia, 25 Feb 2013

Many corporate leaders feel that having achieved a level of success in their career, there is a strong desire to give back, to contribute to the growth and enrichment of their corporation and their community, but don’t know exactly where to start. 

Mentoring programs come in a range of shapes and sizes and are a well-used tool for building skills and sharing experiences. They can be particularly valuable for people working in the not-for-profit sector, where professional development budgets and self-improvement opportunities can be overshadowed by the day-to-day demands of ‘doing good’.

In 2011, the AMP Foundation approached United Way Australia, about taking over their program, which had run for a number of years, to develop it further and make it available to other corporate and non-profit organisations.

As an organisation that focuses on mobilising individuals to create lasting change in the community this opportunity complemented our existing Corporate Community Engagement program. It specifically supports United Way Australia’s mobilisation strategy by providing a structured forum for community and corporate leaders to connect and learn how to work effectively with each other, via a community initiative.

To read more on how the program has made an impact recently for both corporate and community participants please view “The knowledge-sharing benefits of mentoring” a recent article published by AMP Foundation.

Tags: AMP Foundation, Collective impact, Community Impact, Corporate Community Engagement, Corporate Social Responsibility, corporate volunteering, CSR, Employee engagement, engaged volunteering, knolwedge-sharing, leadership, Mentoring, non-profit, Not for profit, Partners for Impact, professional volunteering, social return, Strategic Volunteering, sustainability, United Way, volunteering

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Strategic Volunteering in action – an update from United Way’s Income Coalition

Submitted by United Way Australia, 25 Feb 2013

What happens when you challenge four school Principals, six senior corporate executives and two Department of Education representatives to increase the number of students who finish high school and then transition into further education or employment?

In 2011, as part of our Community Impact agenda United Way Australia established a coalition of representatives from business, government and the non-profit community to work together to address the fact that kids from disadvantaged backgrounds are much less likely to complete their HSC and only 43% continue into higher education. Around 20% will enter the job market, but an astounding 1 in 3 will leave school without any career prospects

Anne Myers, Chief Operating Officer at ING DIRECT, chairs this coalition, which has set itself the challenge of bringing their collective knowledge and resources to better encourage students to stay in school and transition into further education or the workforce.

She speaks HERE on the progress to date and the direction this unique coalition of volunteers aims to take in 2013.

Tags: Collective impact, community, Community Impact, Corporate Social Responsibility, Education, Employee engagement, engagement, high school, ING DIrect, leadership, online, people, social change, sustainability, United Way, wellbeing, Wellbeing Index

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Early years literacy linked to High School completion

Submitted by unitedway, 18 Sep 2012

There is a significant research base indicating early years literacy is linked to high school completion, better life opportunities and better health.

Between the 12th-14th September, 90 delegates attended the 3^rd Annual Early Years Literacy conference hosted by Paint the Town REaD in Canberra.

Paint the Town REaD (PTTR) is an early literacy community scheme that encourages the whole community to read, talk, sing and rhyme with children from birth, so that they will be ready for reading and writing at school.

PTTR was first developed in the 1990s, in Parkes, New South Wales by the local Primary School Principal, Rhonda Brain. Paint the Town REaD’s message, ‘Read, talk, sing and rhyme with your child from birth’ has since reached over 50 communities in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland through the establishment of local PTTR groups.

Over the 2 day conference champions from Paint the Parra REaD, Paint Bankstown REaD, Paint Penrith REaD, Paint the Blue REaD and many more came together to hear early years’ research, share wins and lessons, mascot stories (Rooby Roo did make an appearance), subversive tactics (beer mats with ‘have you read to your child today’ etc), groundswell management and the latest ‘no cost low cost’ idea to engage, mobilise and build awareness in their communities.

Underpinning the ideology of PTTR is local ownership, building on what already exists, engaging the whole of community i.e. the butcher, the police, local sports people, the mayor…and importantly that early literacy is fun and for everyone to get involved in. Many of the women work for local PTTR ‘lead agencies’ ranging from Mission Australia, to local libraries, councils and even a Medicare local.

The keynote speaker was Associate Professor Sharon Goldfield from the Centre for Community Child Health talked about the Australian Educational Development Index. This world-leading research project survey of 97.5% of Australian 5 year olds in 2009 found that 23% of school starters are developmentally vulnerable in one or more development domains (this figure excludes the 4.4% diagnosed with special needs). The data is available at a national, state, regional and suburb level, an invaluable data resource for us to benchmark against and lobby and program for local change.

Dr Lance Emerson from ARACY presented a social marketing campaign aimed at parents and the National Action Platform for Children and Young People. Central to his presentation was the importance of parent engagement. This got many fierce nods from the delegates. The research presented demonstrated that parents or ‘home learning environments’ are up to 4 times more impactful than schools on a child’s educational outcomes. He applauded the work of Paint the Town REaD for engaging parents as children’s first educators.

It appears the PTTR Reading Bug is infectious. Most of the women have added PTTR leadership on top of existing roles, they are energized by the freedom of the PTTR model, to make it local and theirs – right down to choosing their own mascot and logo.  But what drives these community leaders is the knowledge of the critical importance of the first 5 years in life and the fundamental belief that it takes a village to raise a child.

Jenny Riley – Community Impact Manager, United Way Australia.

Tags: Collective impact, Early Age Education, Education, Literacy

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Going for individual glory or team gold

Submitted by unitedway, 22 Aug 2012

Australia has the local resources and leadership in many communities to do the work of building the common good, but do we have the blueprint to create lasting change and the resolve to be accountable for our progress?  Read Doug Taylor’s piece here on Pro Bono Australia.

Tags: Collective impact, Community Impact, Corporate Social Responsibility, Not for profit

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Charting a course for change – advancing education, income and health through collective impact

Submitted by unitedway, 18 Jul 2012

The challenges facing communities today seem almost overwhelming – and are too big for any single organisation to solve; too big even for the non-profit sector to solve without engaging private enterprise and government as partners. There is no single “silver bullet”; instead, a strong cross-sector infrastructure is needed to support collaboration, guide evidence-based decision-making, track community-level outcomes, scan existing resources and identify priority strategies.

This newly released report is a good starting point for any community that wants to improve education, health and financial stability.  It brings together high-impact strategies and expert-vetted implementation approaches for communities to consider as they sort through how best to tackle their individual challenges.

Having well-researched data-driven strategies is critical, but strategies alone cannot solve our society’s problems.  Instead we must adopt a new way of working by bringing nonprofits, governments, businesses, and the public together around a common agenda to create collective impact. Our research has shown that a collective impact approach can produce large scale social change in ways that other forms of collaboration and individual efforts have not.

Collective impact is a disciplined effort to bring together dozens or even hundreds of organisations of all types to establish a common vision and pursue evidence-based actions in mutually reinforcing ways. Successful collective impact initiatives share five key conditions, distinguishing them from other types of collaboration:

• Common Agenda
• Shared Measurement
• Mutually Reinforcing Activities
• Continuous Communication
• Backbone Support

United Ways are powerfully positioned to lead this new way of solving our society’s daunting problems.

United Ways can train the spotlight on critical issues, engage with private and public sector leaders, and coordinate agendas with partners to leverage collective efforts.   In many communities, FSG has found the traditional role of United Way as “neutral convener” is transforming to become the galvanizing force behind collective impact.

- Mark Kramer

Mark Kramer is co-founder and Managing Director of FSG (www.fsg.org) and a Senior Fellow at Harvard University.  He is the author of influential publications on creating shared value for corporations, catalytic philanthropy, strategic evaluation, impact investing, and adaptive leadership.

Tags: Collective impact, Community Impact, community investment, Education, Evidence-based need, Health, Income, Not for profit

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