Consenting Relationships between United Ways

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Consenting Relationships between United Ways

• 2008 Great Rivers
• Conference
• Hyatt Regency Indianapolis

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Presenters

• Mike Larson, President and CPO, United Way of
  Greater Battle Creek
• Patricia Horoho, Executive Director, United Way
  of Huntington County
• Sharon Kish, President , United Way of Porter
  County
• William Weissert, Executive Director, Sheboygan
  Plymouth Area United Way

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Greater Battle Creek/Heart of West Michigan
United WaysBack office pledge processing/customer
relationship management

• Battle Creek (UWGBC)
• Inadequate pledge processing software
• Qualified data entry staffing was limited
• No formal customer relationship management
• Campaign success relied on a few large workplace
  campaign
• Started planned giving program

• Grand Rapids (HWMUW)
• One IT person, no backup
• Excess data entry capacity
• 24-hour 211 hotline
• Sophisticated pledge processing/customer
  relationship management
• Confident it could provide services to other
  United Ways

• Opportunities presented themselves
• Grand Rapids could increase its revenue enough to
  pay for the additional operational expense and
  for back up IT support staff.
• Battle Creek could use the HWMUW services to make
  its operations more efficient/ timely and upgrade
  to a software that would provide the customer
  relationship management capabilities they needed
  without the typical large investment or learning
  curve.
• Jointly the collaboration would eliminate the
  need for duplicate back room pledge processing
  operations.

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Getting Started The first steps are always the
most important

• The software license was purchased which included
  hiring a consultant to help establish the ground
  rules for the services and to train UWGBC staff.
• Planning and training occurred during several
  intense consulting sessions over three months
  prior to the 2004 campaign.
• Fifth Third Bank agreed to provide pro-bono
  courier services for pledge forms between its
  Battle Creek branch and its regional processing
  branch in Grand Rapids.
• HWMUW installed a new server to accommodate the
  additional storage capacity requirements.
• Citrix software was installed at both locations
  to facilitate near real-time internet access.
• Document management software was purchased with
  internet access capabilities to more efficiently
  share pledge documents.

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Results to date And plenty of value-add for the
price of less than one FTE

• Grand Rapids (HWMUW)
• Entered all pledges for the last four campaigns
• Both primary IT and back up support staff
• Document sharing capabilities via internet

• Battle Creek (UWGBC)
• Pledge processing database
• Customer relationship management capabilities
  previously could not afford
• Document sharing capabilities via internet

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Lessons learned And a little parting advice

• Pick your partners carefully and thoughtfully
• Choose a consultant wisely and take advantage of
  their knowledge
• Be thoughtful that United Ways differing in size
  face different challenges
• Compromise is the key to success
• Be willing to compromise on some things and be
  predisposed to making the collaboration work
• Plan for enough outside support
• Share what you are doing with your customers
• Make sure you have thoroughly researched the
  software

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Northeast Consortium12 Counties in Northeast
Indiana

• Mission We are a consortium of United
  Ways/Funds chief professional officers working
  together for the benefit of our local communities
  and region.
• Who is included?
• Why have a consortium group?
• How is it structured?

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Northeast Consortium

• Past Projects
• Regional Marketing
• Shared Staffing
• Shared Services
• Unified Allocation Forms

• Present Projects
• Staff and Volunteer Campaign Development
• Northeast 2-1-1

• Future Projects
• Leased Employees

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Northeast Consortium

• Results
• Networking among member directors
• Sharing knowledge among directors
• Sharing resources with all member counties

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United Ways in Northwest Indiana..Raise
8,000,000
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Consenting Projects..

• UNITED Newsletter
• Regional Leadership Giving Circle
• Joint Campaign Kickoff
• Joint Campaigns Steel, banking, car dealers, etc
• Campaign Video
• 4Community Obesity Initiative
• Regional United Way Volunteer Center
• Grantsmanship Center

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Lessons Learned..

• Have to have level of trust between United Way
  CEOs
• Involve and inform Board Leadership
• Be willing to give up something to gain
  something..but it should be a win-win for all
• Be flexible and willing to compromise.but not
  always consensus
• CELEBRATE and publicize your successes!

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Sheboygan Plymouth Area United Way What are
the strategic issues you face?

• You have to think strategically about whether the
  possible relationship enhances your ability to
  build your organization and fulfill your mission.
• The pursuit of any relationship should be the
  result or part of a strategic planning process.
• What are the strategic issues for your
  organization?
• Does a consenting relationship address those
  issues?
• What will be your return on investment?
• What will serve your community best?

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Discussion of Essential Attributes of
aCommunity Impact United Way

• INTERNAL
• ENVIRONMENTAL
• ANALYSIS
• SWOT IDENTIFY STRATEGIC ISSUES
• ANALYSIS
• EXTERNAL
• ENVIRONMENTAL
• ANALYSIS

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Sheboygan Plymouth Area United Way Why is
Self-Interest Important ?

• What is the self interest of the parties? Both
  the leadership staff that are involved in the
  process?
• How can you make the pieces of the organizational
  puzzle fit together?

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Judgment Trumps Experience Noel Tichy and
Warren Bennis

• Four Types of Knowledge Critical Comprehension
• Self, Social-networks, Organizational, and
  Contextual
• understanding of your market place and
  stakeholders
• The Judgment Process Unfolds in Three Phases
• Preparing How do you frame the issue or
  problem,
• ensuring that your team members understand why
• a decision is important. How do you engage
• stakeholders and tap into their ideas?

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Judgment Trumps Experience Noel Tichy and
Warren Bennis

• Making the call How do arriving at a
• decision and how do you explain it? How do
• you frame the problem to core constituencies?
• Executing the call Carrying out your decision,
• while learning and adjusting along the way.
• How do you make sure everyone supports
• the decision and follows through? There needs to
• be clear milestones/outcomes for success.

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Questions

• How to you get reluctant partners to the table?
  Consider what makes you want to collaborate with
  others? Whats in it for them? What short-term
  goals, clients, or long-term aspirations do you
  have in common with prospective partners?
• What are factors that inhibit collaboration?
  Think of your own experiences. What makes you
  want to take your toys and go home? Have you made
  all the decisions ahead of time? Do you have
  inflexible goals or strategies? Is there trust?
  Have you taken time to get to know your partners
  as people, their ideas, and interests? Do you
  have full buy-in of your CEO and volunteer
  leaders? Are all the decision-makers at home
  requiring final approval? Are you allowing
  adequate time to meet and follow-up on
  agreed-upon plans?

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Questions

• What are the comfy zones for first-time
  collaborations?
• Marketing strategies, such as sharing
  billboards, and other common media market needs.
• Co-hosted and planned training activities.
• What first-time success have participants had?

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Websites
UWA Field Leadership Page for Mergers
www.online.unitedway/org/mergers The Knowledge
Café www.online.unitedway.org/bestpracticemergers
UWA Standards of Excellence http//onlineunited
way.org/site/soe American Management Assn
http//www.amanet.org/books Chronicle of
Philanthropy www.philanthropy.com Fieldstone
Alliance, a merger and a several practical
collaboration books www.FieldstoneAlliance.org La
wyers Alliance for New York http//lawyersallianc
e.org/publications.php Learning Institute for Non
Profit Orgs, library and research
http//www.uwex.edu/li The McKinley Quarterly,
article about the elusive post-merger leadership
www.mckinseyquarterly.com
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Websites

• Making Judgment Calls
• http//harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu
• United Way Standards of Excellence Self
  Assessment Toolkit
• http//online.unitedway.org/site/fileSystem/FileDe
  tails.cfm?FID2960885
• 2006 Strategic Business Plan (Nashville, TN)
• http//online.unitedway.org/site/fileSystem/fileDe
  tails.cfm?FID2619402
• Building a Business Plan for the United Way
  System
• http//online.unitedway.org/site/fileSystem/fileDe
  tails.cfm?FID219132

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Consenting Relationships between United Ways

• "Where there is no vision, there is no hope."
  George Washington Carver
• Inspiring visions rarely (I'm tempted to say
  never) include numbers.Tom Peters

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Consenting Relationships between United Ways

• Thank you for participating in this seminar about
  your United Ways future.
• Mike Larson MikeL_at_uwgbc.org
• Patricia Horoho phoroho_at_huntingtonunitedway.com
  
• Sharon Kish sharonk_at_unitedwaypc.org
• Bill Weissert williamw_at_sauw.org