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ANALYSIS OF MOVING THE NEEDLE IN ARKANSAS wrfoundation.org | 1

R POutcomes from the second phase of WRF’s Reflection, Analysis, and Planning Process

Analysis Summary

2 | ANALYSIS OF MOVING THE NEEDLE IN ARKANSAS wrfoundation.org

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

© 2017 Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation 225 East Markham Street, Suite 200Little Rock, AR 72201

Permission to copy, disseminate, or otherwise use information from this report is granted as long as appropriate acknowledgment is given.

Written by Lisa Ranghelli, Senior Director of Assessment and Special Projects at National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP); more information about NCRP is available at www.ncrp.org

Designed by Brad Cameron-Cooper, Communications and Knowledge Management Associate, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation

Research for this report was conducted by Amy Dean with Management Assistance Group (MAG), David Peter Stroh and Michael Goodman with Applied Systems Thinking, and Acadia Roher. Additional contributions were made by:

• Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation (WRF) Board and staff• Angela Duran (Arkansas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading)• Susan Harriman (ForwARd Arkansas)• Ed Franklin (Expect More Arkansas)• Candace Williams and Lavina Grandon (Rural Community

Alliance)• Mireya Reith and Ruby Garcia (Arkansas United Community

Coalition)• Rich Huddleston (Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families)• Mark Perry (Arkansas Baptist College)• Bill Stovall (Arkansas Community Colleges)• Rhonda Sanders (Arkansas Foodbank)• Rebecca Zimmermann (Arkansas Nonprofit Alliance)• Bill Kopsky (Arkansas Public Policy Panel)• Beatrice Shelby (Boys, Girls, Adults Community Development

Center)• Charlotte WIlliams (University of Arkansas Clinton School of

Public Service Center on Community Philanthropy)• Ruth Shepherd (Just Communities of Arkansas)• Georgia Mjartan and Ben Goodwin (Our House)• Roderick Smothers (Philander Smith College)• Toyce Newton (Phoenix Youth and Family Services)• John Riggs (Riggs CAT)• Phil Baldwin (The Citizens Bank)

About the Winthrop Rockefeller FoundationFor more than 40 years, WRF has helped to build and sustain the organizations that serve and strengthen Arkansas. Through grantmaking and strategic partnerships, WRF is working hard to help close the economic and educational gaps that leave too many Arkansas families in persistent poverty. www.wrfoundation.org

Note from Lisa Ranghelli, the WriterLisa Ranghelli wrote this report on behalf of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), in fulfillment of a contract between WRF and NCRP. At the time the consulting contract was initiated, WRF President and CEO Sherece Y. West-Scantlebury was Board Chair for NCRP. As with other consultants involved in the Foundation’s Reflection, Analysis, and Planning (RAP) process, NCRP was compensated for writing this report on what the Foundation learned during its year of Analysis.


December 2015 - September 2016

Reflect on what WRF knows & what it needs to learn about progress toward achieving MTN goals

September 2016 - September 2017

Analyze what data reveal about the Foundation’s impact on the state after 10 years implementing MTN in Arkansas

September 2017 - September 2018

Plan for how the Foundation will strategically make decisions & build upon the its current knowledge to improve the lives of all Arkansans in three interrelated areas: education; economic development; and economic, racial, & social justice

• Opportunities to learn for Board, staff, & partners

• Documentation of what WRF has learned & what it needs to know more about

• A strategy for answering questions that arise during Reflection

• Stories WRF will share proudly & loudly about how Arkansas is moving the needle on prosperity, education, strengthening communities, & building nonprofit infrastructure

Outcomes

• Information that helps WRF answer questions it was unable to answer during the Reflection Phase

• A report that describes the Foundation’s impact & shares MTN’s story with Arkansans & national funders

• A convening of Foundation partners to leverage our shared data to make decisions that create a brighter future for Arkansas

• The foundation for WRF’s next strategic plan

Outcomes

A new strategic plan that is informed by what Board, staff, and partners collectively learned while implementing MTN. This new plan will continue to dramatically improve the lives of all Arkansans, build hope within Arkansas, & reflect the catalytic power of transformational philanthropy.

Outcome

RAP PROCESS TIMELINE


A DECADE OF DIFFERENCEMoving the Needle in Arkansas

There is a lot of talk in philanthropy about the value of stakeholder input and feedback to inform strategies and grantmaking practices. While most foundations have yet to put this principle into practice, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation (WRF) is a notable exemplar in this regard. Under the leadership of Sherece Y. West-Scantlebury, WRF solicited input from community leaders when crafting its first Moving the Needle (MTN) strategic plan over a decade ago, boldly piloted NCRP’s feedback and assessment tool to inform development of the Foundation’s MTN 2.0 strategic plan, and has again reached out to stakeholders throughout its Reflection, Analysis, and Planning (RAP) process.

WRF spent 2016 in a Reflection phase with Board, staff, and partners on what the Foundation achieved and learned throughout its implementation of the MTN strategic plan. During the 2017 Analysis phase of RAP, the Foundation sought answers to questions raised during Reflection. These answers lay the groundwork for the Planning phase, which WRF will undertake in 2018.

The Foundation has invested a tremendous amount of time and resources in learning from its partners, community leaders, Board, staff, and national content experts to inform its strategic planning. As described in the report that follows, this input motivates the Foundation to be bold and visionary, to take stock of where it is and where it needs to be, and to think outside the box to develop strategies that will improve the lives of all Arkansans.


MOVING FROM REFLECTION TO ANALYSIS

The Reflection phase, undertaken by the Foundation in 2016 and described in greater detail in a separate report, revealed the following insights:

• WRF’s long-term, systems-change approach to improving policies and programs has enabled the Foundation’s partners to grow their capacity to make significant progress toward MTN goals

• Consistent core support for several “mission critical” nonprofits in the state–and a strong commitment to funding advocacy–contributed to these successes

• The Foundation’s leadership development investments have helped bring many Arkansas residents into civic life, including some who have long lived in the shadows and on the margins

• WRF’s strategic, flexible, and collaborative grantmaking and partnerships enabled staff to cultivate new initiatives over time that aligned with MTN’s long-term goals

• WRF’s partners greatly value how effectively the Foundation leverages its credibility, relationships, and networks to advance learning and progress in Arkansas and nationally, including communication and advocacy within the field of philanthropy

The Reflection phase also revealed two key questions the Foundation sought to answer during the Analysis phase:

• What does the Foundation know about its contributions to building an infrastructure for change, bold initiatives, philanthropic transformation, and communications?

• How does answering the above inform the Foundation’s decisions about whether to stay the course or change direction in the next iteration of its strategic plan?

To answer these questions and prepare for planning, the Foundation first dug deep into the data and engaged in additional conversations with Board, staff, partners, and state and national leaders to better understand the State of the State in Arkansas and WRF’s Impact.


ACTIVITY PROCESS

Listen & Learn Tour Data Summaries

Staff paired up to visit regions of the state to discuss what residents were most proud of in their community, what they would like to change, and what stands in the way of positive change. The qualitative data from these sessions was paired with quantitative data to create Listen and Learn Data Summaries that provide an overview of the regions and state as a whole.

Prosperity Systems Map

State leaders, staff, and consultants created a map that visually represents the systems and subsystems that WRF seeks to influence to increase prosperity in Arkansas, highlighting characteristics of Arkansas that support or prevent increasing prosperity for all residents.

Stakeholder Interviews Report

Foundation partners and grantees answered the question, “Why haven’t WRF and its partners made greater progress toward increasing prosperity in Arkansas?”

RAP Analysis Papers

(APs)

Staff captured qualitative and quantitative impact based on a review of existing WRF documents to more clearly understand the Foundation’s impact on: o Asset Buildingo Program-Related Investments (PRIs)o Early Childhoodo Higher Educationo Immigrationo Public Policy

MTN by the Numbers

Staff summarized quantitative data from 2009 to 2017 from multiple sources, including grant allocations, online audience and engagement data, and achievements of the Foundation’s key initiatives, the Arkansas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (AR-GLR), ForwARd Arkansas (ForwARd), and Expect More Arkansas (Expect More).

Staff also studied and analyzed materials related to Arkansas’s economy, race and poverty, social justice philanthropy, two-generation approaches, asset framing, and futurism. These key concepts will be discussed throughout the Planning phase of RAP.

STAT

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IMPA

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How WRF documented answers to the guiding questions of the Analysis phase


WHAT WRF LEARNED FROM ANALYSIS

During the Listen and Learn Tour WRF staff spoke with residents in approximately 50 communities representing the five regions of the state: Northwest, West, Southwest, Central, and the Delta. While locations and participants were diverse, staff consistently asked the same four questions:

1. What are you most proud of/do you love about your community?2. What would you change about your community?3. What keeps your community from changing?

The following big ideas surfaced:

• The future is bright: Arkansans are optimistic about the future of their communities• Perception is destiny: What residents believe about their communities shapes their future, for

better or worse• Leadership matters: Individual leaders connect residents to educational and career

opportunities, but they can also act as barriers• Regional collaboration enables sustainability and growth: When communities share

knowledge and resources, they are better equipped to provide residents support and opportunities

• Education is the key to opportunity: Quality K-12 and higher education lay the foundation for communities’ economic success as they prepare the area’s workforce to obtain high-skilled jobs that pay family-supporting wages

• Healthy, whole communities are essential: Residents highly value unity of community and trust

• Dividing lines are drawn along racial and socioeconomic differences: Families choose communities, neighborhoods, and school systems that demonstrate racial and economic characteristics that mirror their own, which breaks down unity and opportunity

• Youth are the future: In rural communities, youth are in high demand but diminishing supply• Diversity strengthens communities: Immigrants moving to rural areas can help aging

communities survive and even thrive

The qualitative Listen and Learn data was combined with quantitative data from the state and local levels to create a comprehensive picture of opportunities and challenges in Arkansas as well ashow local perceptions aligned with and diverged from reality.

STATE OF THE STATETo better understand the State of the State in Arkansas, the Foundation gathered data, listened to communities, and anlyazed the systems affecting prosperity in the state.

Listen & Learn Tour Data Summaries


The Prosperity Systems Map visually depicts the factors that contribute to prosperity in Arkansas. The map reflects relationships between factors that generate prosperity as a result of public investments in educational effectiveness as well as factors that increase local, small, and creative business development; make communities attractive for youth to stay in them; and incentives the state and communities can offer to draw in large employers. The map also reflects relationships that reduce or create barriers to prosperity, such as structural racism and concentrated urban development, wealth, and power.




WHAT WRF LEARNED FROM ANALYSIS

WRF’S IMPACT

The Stakeholder Interviews Report affirms MTN’s progress while offering a sobering perspective on the obstacles to increasing prosperity in Arkansas. While interviewees offer diverse definitions of “prosperity,” a majority link it to a stable living wage job with benefits, which is gained through access to a quality education. Other conditions contribute to prosperity, and these cross racial and class lines. A respondent who had conducted several focus group conversations in one Arkansas community observes:

Helena is a very racially divided town, and you would expect you might get different answers from different groups. But whether they were white or black, people said they wanted a safe environment to live in, a safe place for their children, a safe home, a safe neighborhood. They wanted their children to be educated in a way that allowed them to succeed in life. They wanted their kids to know how to read and to write and do math in order to get a job.

Partner interviews reveal that WRF’s various statewide education campaigns offer some of the most notable evidence of MTN’s success, measured not just by outcomes but also by the collaborative nature of these initiatives and the widespread acceptance of their goals. As one partner notes:

I can’t tell you how many conversations I have with donors or volunteers, and they’re like, “So what are you doing to get kids reading at grade level? You know, third grade is the mile marker.” And it makes me smile because I know that WRF and its partners did that. They brought awareness to the broad community of people who care about this kind of stuff, that grade-level reading matters.

Partners also praise WRF’s courage in the realm of advocacy and organizing, its effective role as a convener, and its transparency and true partnership with grantees. Honest relationships have fostered improvements in grants management, prompting one grantee to describe the new grant reporting system as “short, crisp, and meaningful.”

Asked why WRF and its partners have not made greater progress in attaining prosperity for all Arkansans, interviewees cite a range of factors. Many caution that changing entrenched systems takes a long time, far longer than the decade that MTN has existed.

To learn what the Foundation’s impact was throughout its implementation of the MTN strategic plan, WRF interviewied partners and leaders as well as analyzed investment-related data and documentation from the past decade.

Stakeholder Interviews Report


Economic and business conditions loom large, such as quality of jobs coming into the state and a mismatch between skills needed and the skills of the existing workforce. The state’s poor national reputation–ranking near the bottom in health, education, and poverty indicators and perceived lack of lifestyle amenities–deters high-wage sectors from relocating. The lack of a statewide economic development plan also makes it difficult to address these issues effectively.

Economic and racial inequities and segregated communities continue to plague the state, and divisions have recently gotten worse. Institutional racism, which may not be intended, as well as racial violence and intimidation, keep communities of color and those in poverty from accessing power structures. Policymakers are not helping the situation:

Look at the legislature and count up the number of Hispanics, African Americans, or women for that matter. Those numbers are abysmal. At the local level it’s even a bigger issue, especially in the Delta, where you still have people with money making the decisions.

The state policy environment has shifted from supporting the public to catering to corporate interests in Arkansas and nationally. One interviewee starkly describes what is at stake:

The danger is that Arkansas is actually backtracking from our commitment to quality education. Arkansas, between 2003 and 2015–the Lake View reform years–had the fastest improving education system in the country, based on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores. We moved from 49th to 41st in those 12 years. Lake View was a massive investment. We spent a billion dollars more a year on education than we did in 2003. Most of that money went into research-proven stuff: improving curricula, improving teacher quality, improving facilities, access to pre-K, lowering class sizes. It was bipartisan and you had some prominent business community support, which was important. That has all been washed away in the past couple of years, resulting in a refocusing by the business community in the state away from improving education and towards tax relief, and of the legislature abandoning the Lake View ruling.

Greater constituent engagement is needed to influence decision makers as well as higher voter turnout and better voter education. This requires more resources for advocacy and organizing among residents and across the nonprofit sector.

Progress in education is at risk, as noted above, and respondents cite many obstacles that are cultural, systemic, and related to leadership. Lack of unity around key education strategies is also noted, such as disagreement about the role of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational programming and the roles of charter schools and traditional public schools.

The Stakeholder Interviews Report reveals consensus around some of the challenges, including lack of cross-sector collaboration, lack of overarching state-level economic development leadership, and a mostly white business/political class that does not care about shared prosperity but rather its own bottom line. The nonprofit sector is stretched thin, as one respondent describes the situation: “Passion is high, but impact is limited.” Yet respondents are far from unanimous on which strategies and priorities WRF should take in the future.


The RAP APs offer a deeper dive into six topics to show the history of WRF’s strategies and impact leading up to and including MTN.

The asset-building and program-related investment (PRI) APs reflect the myriad strategies, tools, and resources WRF has deployed to build community wealth. Grants and PRIs provided to southern financial institutions, economic development agencies, and education initiatives have been leveraged to increase residents’ capacity to gain post-secondary education, garner higher earnings, grow small businesses, and own homes.

WRF has made significant strides in improving early childhood education and care, including securing the governor’s buy-in for the goal of AR-GLR to prepare every Arkansas student to read at grade-level by the end of third grade, funding effective programs to boost school attendance, supporting advocacy to end suspensions and expulsions for K-5 students, and moving the state to invest in evidence-based home-visiting programs.

WRF’s higher education strategies have opened doors for more residents to access and succeed in college, such as immigrant youth, especially DREAMers; African American, Latino and low-income white males; individuals with disabilities; and single parents. WRF’s deep investments in the community college system and the success of its students as a result of the Career Pathways Initiative is a model for the rest of the nation.

WRF’s advancement of immigrant voice and economic success in Arkansas, and its strong commitment to public policy that works, together demonstrate how WRF has used advocacy, organizing, and civic engagement strategies in concert with compelling research to achieve meaningful results. WRF has helped nurture immigrant-serving organizations’ leadership, capacity, visibility, and credibility in Arkansas as well as the rest of the nation. Its policy grants have increased and sustained the capacity of advocates to engage and represent underserved communities and create laws that increase prosperity for all Arkansans as well as fight harmful policy proposals.

RAP APs


W-‘RAP’-PING IT ALL UP

As the Foundation enters the Planning phase of RAP and begins to make key decisions about strategies and priorities for the next five years, the following table summarizes key statewide issues and trends surfaced in the Reflection and Analysis phases that may have implications during the Planning phase.

MTN by the Numbers shows that over nine years, WRF gave 275 grants totaling $32.3 million, with an average grant size of $117,359. A little over two-thirds ($22.8 million) supported building the nonprofit infrastructure and improving education. The remainder was allocated primarily to increasing prosperity ($7 million) and strengthening communities ($2 million). Through its Board site visits and other community conversations, the Foundation traveled to many parts of the state to deepen its understanding of diverse regions and local assets and needs.

WRF’s publications and social media strategies have helped WRF convey what it has learned to a growing audience. A number of WRF’s initiatives had tangible, quantifiable impact. A notable example is the $16 million combined tax refunds and earned-income tax credits (EITC) households have received thanks to volunteer income tax assistance (VITA) in 2016 alone. More recent initiatives such as ForwARd have shown positive outcomes fairly quickly: 12 out of 95 strategic recommendations were implemented in year one, and 46 more have since been put into practice.

MTN by the Numbers


CONSIDERATIONS FOR ARKANSAS’S FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING

WRF has helped gradually shift the state narratives around quality education and family-supporting jobs. Further shifts are required to reaffirm a public commitment to education, maintain unity around education strategies, catalyze a comprehensive state plan for economic development, and develop a shared message on what works to increase prosperity for all.

Double-down on using the Foundation’s bully pulpit, develop and share research, support cross-sector collaboration, and fund advocacy, organizing, and civic engagement to increase educational attainment as a means of increasing prosperity for all Arkansans.

Explore two-generation strategies that holistically create opportunities for and address the needs of all children and their parents.

Build WRF’s capacity in shaping narratives by developing a branded messaging framework in parallel with development of the new strategic plan.

Complex, intersecting education, economic, and workforce development systems and other factors affect prosperity. Systems thinking analysis shows that interventions can have unintended consequences, and multiple strategies directed at systems change can result in more dramatic, positive transformation.

Use a futurist framework to anticipate implications of rapid changes in technology, climate, and other facets of US life.

Determine how WRF will operationally integrate and coordinate across its myriad initiatives and campaigns both internally and externally.

Remain agile, build in continuous learning, and create opportunities to make mid-course corrections.

Determine how WRF will communicate its impact and ongoing lessons more consistently to stakeholders under the new plan.

Structural racism has and will continue to inhibit increasing prosperity unless communities commit to racial healing, reconciliation, and interventions to promote equity.

Continue to explore race, power, and social justice philanthropy. Ensure the next strategic plan explicitly addresses economic, racial, and social justice in its goals and strategies.

Incorporate asset framing into investments and messaging to address structural barriers to equity by defining people by their aspirations and contributions, acknowledging the challenges they face, and investing in them for their continued benefit to society.

Equitable access to power and more diverse political leaders are needed to balance business interests with Arkansans’ rights in policymaking.

Address the long-term need to build a diverse, engaged, and informed electorate and support a new generation of political leaders.

Invest in the nonprofit sector’s coordinated advocacy and policy change capacity.


September 2017WRF will hold its 2017 Biennial Grantee and Stakeholder Convening, where Board, staff, and partners will kick off the Planning phase of RAP. To lay the foundation for this initial planning conversation, state and national thought leaders will share more about:

• Asset framing• Futurism• Social justice• Economic development in Arkansas and rural communities

WRF will share accomplishments and lessons learned that were uncovered throughout the Reflection and Analysis phases. Board members, grantees, and Foundation partners will share aspirations for the future of Arkansas.

December 2017The Board will discuss and design the Foundation’s programmatic impact areas.

March 2018 The Board will shape WRF’s operations and outcomes as they relate to the Foundation’s priorities in the new strategic direction.

April - May 2018The Foundation will share the ideas generated from Board discussions with key stakeholders for input and feedback.

June 2018 The Board will review a draft of the strategic plan.

July - August 2018With feedback from partners and the Board, the Foundation will revise and finalize the strategic plan.

September 2018The Board will share final thoughts and feedback on the strategic plan and begin discussing how to operationalize it.

December 2018The Board and staff will celebrate and launch the new strategic plan.

2019 - Onward The Foundation will share the new strategic plan with partners and support them as ambassadors, advocates, and activists for achieving the Foundation’s new goals.

Timeline for Planning


The story revealed by the data collected during the Analysis phase is a study in contrasts–the tremendous accomplishments throughout MTN by the Foundation and its many public, private, and nonprofit partners, juxtaposed with an increasingly challenging political environment and entrenched systems that inhibit further progress.

The Analysis phase showed a clear connection between MTN and WRF’s mission to improve the lives of all Arkansans in three interrelated areas: education, economic development, and economic, racial, and social justice. While it is unlikely its mission will change, the Foundation knows its strategies for achieving that mission must adapt to the changing nature of the state’s challenges and integrate the promising, innovative practices it finds.

The good news is that WRF has a solid foundation on which to build future progress: quantitative and qualitative data have affirmed that the core strategies of MTN have had demonstrable impact; and Arkansans have shown a vision, passion, and commitment for coming together to realize the state’s vast potential.

By discerning the goals that Arkansans set for themselves, the Foundation can continue to leverage its leadership, assets, and network to achieve those goals in partnership with others. One day, state leaders across all sectors will understand the value of every resident and come together to do their part to ensure all Arkansas children and families can thrive and have pride in their state.

Conclusion


Become an ambassador, advocate, and activist for moving the needle in Arkansas.

Join the conversation at:

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