By: Adam Luecking
December 12th, 2022
Social Sector Hero Spotlights tell stories of exemplary social and public sector organizations that are making measurable differences in their communities. The following United Way spotlight is an excerpt from “Social Sector Hero – How Government and Philanthropy Can Fund for Impact” by Adam Luecking. You can download the book for free here and read all 16 Social Sector Hero Spotlights.
Chamber of Commerce building – Waco, Texas (USA)
Table of Contents
1. Great Things Come in Small Packages
2. Addressing Poverty and Inequity
3. Taking an Aligned and Collaborative Approach to Data Collection
4. Maintaining Cohesion and Committment
5. Tiffani Johnson’s Two Big Tips for Success
6. Measurable Outcomes (Despite COVID-19)
7. Tracking Results and Communicating Impact with Scorecard
1. Great Things Come in Small Packages
If you’ve ever heard of Chip and Joanna Gaines and their show “Fixer Upper,” you’re probably familiar with Waco, Texas. Their home base is Crawford, Texas — located just on the outskirts of Waco. Nearby, in the heart of Waco, resides the United Way of Waco-McLennan County (UWWMC).
UWWMC is a relatively small United Way — there are six staff and 33 funded programs across 22 partners. But we all know great things come in small packages. UWWMC and its partners reached an aggregated 4,777 children, adults, and families in 2021 through the programs they support, despite the impacts of COVID-19. Even more impressive was the fact that 82 percent of clients were determined to be “better off” as a result of UWWMC-supported programming.
2. Addressing Poverty and Inequity
A few years ago, UWWMC realized its community’s financial stability was suffering. Notably, Waco’s poverty rate was 26.8 percent, representing more than twice the national average. A look at the data, disaggregated by race and ethnicity, also told them 24 percent of African-Americans and 21 percent of Latinx people lived in poverty compared to 12 percent of white people. To address these realities, UWWMC began to pursue innovative approaches to measurable progress.
3. Taking an Aligned and Collaborative Approach to Data Collection
UWWMC staff were first introduced to the Results-Based Accountability framework and Clear Impact’s services in 2018 as a means to take an aligned and collaborative approach to community data collection. Along with community partners, UWWMC agreed that they would adopt the framework as it aligned perfectly with their goals and values. They had just experienced a change in organizational leadership, and with the new project leadership of Tiffani Johnson, Senior Director for Impact and Engagement, there was a refreshed interest in aligning grantees for impact.
To get the gears turning, UWWMC gathered their grantees and asked them about the goals they wanted for the community — these turned into the community priorities of:
- Education: Children have the skills and knowledge to succeed in school and life
- Financial Stability: Individuals and families have the ability to improve their financial stability and economic status
- Health: Individuals and families can improve their health and live healthy lives
- Safety Net Services: Individuals and families can meet their essential needs to move out of crisis situations.
UWWMC also created a task force of community leaders and consulted the United Way Worldwide Global Results Framework — mentioned in the Hero’s Journey Spotlight in Chapter Four — to ensure alignment with the United Way network as a whole. They envisioned future collaborative alignment with other local foundations to advance toward a grand, community-wide vision of data collection. In other words, they shared my dream of a massive, cross-sector, cohesive force for social impact.
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4. Maintaining Cohesion and Commitment
At the end of the day, UWWMC successfully aligned its grantees with a Common Purpose: strengthening their community by mobilizing resources towards the shared focus areas of education, health, financial stability, and safety net services. How would they all align with the vision and achieve the mission? Everyone had to commit to collaborating, inspiring wider participation and giving, engaging the community, mobilizing resources towards impact, promoting public awareness, and demonstrating transparency and accountability.
To demonstrate the value of UWWMC’s new social impact framework (beyond that of a reporting exercise), they created consistent learning opportunities for partners to improve their understanding and implementation of Results-Based Accountability and outcomes measurement via annual training. They also maintained cohesion by developing common goals, focus areas, and performance metrics. Throughout the journey, patience and flexibility helped engage UWWMC’s partners in new initiatives. They understood the value and power of giving grantees a space to report on a few metrics that spoke to their uniqueness.
5. Tiffani Johnson’s Two Big Tips for Success
When I spoke with UWWMC’s Tiffani Johnson (Senior Director of Impact and Engagement), her two big tips for success aligned with the values of consistency and flexibility in performance management and reporting:
- First, when getting started, she suggested that funders give one to two years of lead time for grantees to get used to performance expectations and reporting. This should happen before funders start evaluating the metrics. Wiggle room allows for a high level of flexibility for organizations to gather their data, work out the kinks in their data collection systems, and get used to the idea and practice of regular performance reporting.
- Second, funders should provide partners with a common data reporting system. This helps standardize reporting activities, streamline data collection for the funder, and ultimately allows funders to aggregate performance data to communicate shared impact. For UWWMC, their common reporting tool reinforced the use of a common language and framework to enhance a spirit of fellowship and inclusion in a grander purpose. You can learn more about this tool in the last chapter of this blog post (Tracking Results and Communicating Impact with Scorecard).
5. Measurable Outcomes (Despite COVID-19)
While the COVID-19 pandemic skewed the data due to temporary program closures, strong outcomes were produced across UWWMC’s grantee network in 2021. These results were influenced by consistent Performance Measures and reporting systems across similar programs, outlined below.
“Pillar” Outcomes (Highest Level of Outcome Data Aggregation Across Like Programs):
- 79 percent of families and children served by programs in the Education pillar improved their knowledge and skills in order to be successful in school and life
- 91 percent of clients served by programs in the Financial Stability pillar improved their financial stability and economic status
- 87 percent of clients served by programs in the Health pillar improved their health and ability to live healthy lives
- 71 percent of individuals and families served by programs in the Safety Net Services pillar were able to meet their essential needs in order to move out of crisis.
2021 Goal and Objective Area Outcomes:
- 85 percent of children served made progress toward achieving social-emotional developmental milestones
- 93 percent of clients served increased their knowledge and skills in order to obtain jobs with the potential for advancement
- 85 percent of individuals served increased their knowledge and skills to improve their overall health and wellness
- 71 percent of individuals served received the services and resources needed to meet their basic needs in crisis situations.
6. Tracking Results and Communicating Impact With Scorecard
UWWMC aggregates these metrics in its common performance reporting system — the Clear Impact Scorecard. The Scorecard provides an automated system that helps UWWMC communicate impact in the four focus areas. It allows partners to instantly update data remotely, which is then instantly aggregated into larger Impact Framework Scorecards. The Scorecard allows UWWMC to answer the following questions more easily:
- How much work are partners doing?
- How are residents better off as a result of that work?
- Are there different gains in education, financial stability, health, or safety net services?
- What do the individual contributions of partners mean at an aggregate level?
Following UWWMC’s example, funders should take the time to work one-on-one with each grantee to define measures that are actionable and accurately tell their program’s story — not just a laundry list of throw-away measures. And whether it’s the Clear Impact Scorecard, another software, or an in-house system, everyone should use the same reporting process.
You can learn more about UWWMC’s initiatives and progress in their official Clear Impact Scorecard case study.
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