Investing in Change: Funding Collective Impact Nicole Angresano Vice President, Community Impact United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County

Today’s Key Takeaways Understanding the key elements of collective impact Increasing Awareness of Local Examples of collective impact Understanding the various roles funders can play in collective impact efforts Assessing if a funder/foundation should take on a role in collective impact and if so, which role(s)?

Achieving Large-Scale Change through Collective Impact 5 Steps Common Agenda/Goal •Common understanding of the problem •Shared vision for change Shared Measurement •Collecting data and measuring results •Focus on performance management •Shared accountability Mutually Reinforcing Activities •Differentiated approaches •Coordination through joint plan of action Continuous Communication •Consistent and open communication •Focus on building trust Backbone Support •Separate organization(s) with staff •Resources and skills to convene and coordinate participating organizations

Reduce births to 15-17 year olds. 1. COMMON AGENDA: MILWAUKEE TEEN PREGNANCY PREVENTION INITIATIVE ONE GOAL: Reduce births to 15-17 year olds.

Theory of Change/Logic Model

2. SHARED MEASUREMENT: BEYOND THE BELL MILWAUKEE Beyond the Bell is working to coordinate access, participation, data sharing, and quality improvement strategies among out-of-school (after school, summer, and expanded learning) opportunities for youth and teens ages 13-18. The data group, specifically, is working to identify and pursue strategies for collecting, sharing, and using data to track city-wide participation and service inefficiencies for programs serving youth.

Success for every child, in every school, cradle to career. 3: MUTUALLY REINFORCING ACTIVITIES: MILWAUKEE SUCCEEDS Success for every child, in every school, cradle to career. That’s the goal of Milwaukee Succeeds, an extensive community partnership that the Greater Milwaukee Foundation helped launch in 2011 along with a number of key business and civic leaders. The historic partnership is committed to making significant progress and bringing lasting change to the way the Milwaukee community supports the education of our children.

4: CONTINUOUS COMMUNICATION: COORDINATED ENTRY

5: BACKBONE SUPPORT: MILWAUKEE LIFECOURSE INITATIVE FOR HEALTHY FAMILIES

So. . . Where do the Funders Fit In?

A New Paradigm for Funders Shifting from Isolated Impact to Collective Impact Requires a Different Approach on the Part of Funders The current approach of many funders is less conducive to solving complex problems: •Funders develop internal foundation strategy •Funders pick and fund individual grantees, who work separately and compete to produce results •Funders build capacity of individual organizations •Funders evaluate individual grants and determine attribution •Funders are held accountable to internal stakeholders (e.g., Board) •Funders work independently and don’t always coordinate their actions with other funders In a collective impact context, funders shift their mindset to an “adaptive” approach more aligned with complex issues: • Funders co-create strategy with other key stakeholders • Funders fund a long-term process of change around a specific problem in active collaboration with many organizations within a larger system • Funders must be flexible and adaptive to get to the intended outcome with stakeholders • Funders build the capacity of multiple organizations to work together • Funders evaluate progress towards a social goal and degree of contribution to its solution • Funders are held jointly accountable for achievement of goals developed as part of effort •Funders actively coordinate their action and share lessons learned

Funders Can Engage in Collective Impact Efforts in a Number of Ways Sample Funder Role Description Catalyst Funder initiates collective impact strategy as champion, financier, and convener, potentially playing a key role in attracting resources throughout the effort Backbone Organization Funder organizes and coordinates the actions of cross-sector stakeholders to advance collective impact effort Participant Funder actively participates in collective impact effort, and aligns funding and measurement to the effort

Phase II Organize for Impact Phase III Sustain Action and Impact Funder Activities Can Take a Number of Diverse Forms Over the Course of a Collective Impact Effort Phase I Initiate Action Phase II Organize for Impact Phase III Sustain Action and Impact •Fund data collection / research required to make the case for collective impact •Encourage grantees and stakeholders to collaborate •Encourage other funders to join the effort / align with other funders •Use convening power to draw key stakeholders to the table •Broker relationships to create open lines of communication between stakeholders •Participate on Steering Committee •Fund backbone infrastructure •Fund shared measurement systems •Fund trainings to increase stakeholder expertise in key collective impact skill sets e.g., leadership, group planning •Fund research on evidence-based practices •Encourage grantees and other stakeholders to align evaluation to shared measures •Convene community stakeholders •Participate on working groups or Steering Committee •Align funding with the common goals and measures of the effort •Continue to fund backbone infrastructure and shared measurement systems •Fund discrete initiatives identified through the collective impact effort •Provide content expertise on evidence-based practices •Continue to encourage grantees and other stakeholders to align evaluation to shared measures •Align strategy with other funders and actively coordinate

How do funders know if this model is right for them? Catalyst How do we know this is the topic to focus on right now? How will we measure success for this topic? What drew our interest to this topic? What knowledge, resources, and value do we feel that we can uniquely bring to this topic? Theory Of Change How does this topic fit into our theory of change? How rigid is our theory of change? Are we willing to re-examine our theory of change? How comfortable are we redefining the problem and/or the solutions with in collaboration with other stakeholders?

How do funders know if this model is right for them? Organizational Culture What is our comfort level with collaboration in general? What is our comfort level collaborating with stakeholders who have different perspectives? What is our comfort level with not knowing, being wrong and/or changing course? What is our organization’s attitude towards process versus outcome? Risk How comfortable are we being a part of something we can’t solely control? How many resources, and which resources, are we comfortable putting towards something that we can’t solely control? What are our desired levels of strategic and operational control? Why?

How do funders know if this model is right for them? Fundraising/Branding How do we feel about fundraising for a process (relationship and movement building) versus well-defined program outcomes? How can we tell the complex story of this collaboration to our donors in a way that matters to them? How much ownership/credit do we want? How much are we willing to share? Timeline How comfortable are we in engaging in multi-year, and potentially multi-decade, initiatives? For what timeframe are we able to commit resources (time, staff, financial, etc.) to? What exit strategies, if any, do we need?