Strategic partner highlight: United Way of the Columbia-Willamette
A closer look at our partnership with the United Way
 |
Project Access NOW is in strategic partnership with the United Way of the Columbia-Willamette. We’re proud and honored to be able to say that. As we reflect on Project Access NOW’s first year of nonprofit status, we wish to recognize United Way’s role in getting us and our model off the ground. We asked the United Way staff most involved in the partnership to recount their experience. How did the partnership emerge? What does it entail? And where is it headed?
According to Howard Klink, VP Community Impact, the roots of the partnership trace back to 2006, when United Way initiated a discussion with representatives of major health care providers and community leaders about the direction of healthcare policy and the role United Way may play in supporting it. United Way resolved to help on the local level, where it would have most influence and remain aligned with its Community Impact model. Klink said, “We decided to focus as close to the ground as possible.”
United Way board member Jim Francesconi made the connection with Project Access NOW, which was forming at the time, through Priscilla Lewis at Providence Health System, a major contributor to the debate, Andy Davidson, President and CEO, Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health, and Judge Hicks, Project Access NOW’s first Board Chair. United Way deliberated about its potential involvement for six months until the decision was reached to support Project Access NOW as a strategic partner.
The initial partnership agreement was for three years. In the first year, in 2007, United Way disbursed $75,000 to support the development of basic infrastructure. In the second year, another $75,000 went to Project Access NOW and additional $20,000 to the four participating counties (for a total of $80,000) to strengthen their initiatives. In the third year, beginning July 2009, United Way will directly allocate $100,000 to Project Access NOW to support its next development phase.
Initially, United Way acted as Project Access NOW’s fiscal sponsor. According to Elena Wiesenthal, Community Investment Manager – Health and Wellness, “All hospital partners were also contributing in kind, with space, computers, or office furniture. As a strategic partner, United Way contributed fiscal sponsorship until Project Access NOW was ready to take on the responsibility in July 2008. It was unique for us to do it, but so was the partnership.”
Under United Way’s Community Impact model, most dollars are distributed through competitive grants. Only a handful of projects receive direct allocation. Project Access NOW was identified because of its strategic alignment with United Way’s priorities: healthcare is a basic service, which directly affects poverty, financial stability, and homelessness. As further considerations, Klink added the focus on volunteerism and a “historically unprecedented effort to bring the twelve regional hospitals together in a collaboration.”
To the list of partnership considerations Wiesenthal added Project Access NOW’s coverage of all Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area counties, United Way of the Columbia-Willamette’s total funding area. “The partnership bridges the geographical gap as well, spanning four counties and two states, with their different cultures, politics, and funding vehicles.”
The strategic partnership between United Way and Project Access NOW incorporates an accountability mechanism. “Measurable deliverables are built in our direct allocations,” Klink said. Project Access NOW reports, in great detail, progress on patient and volunteer counts, collaborative relations, monetary worth of services provided by doctors and hospitals, and other support. The results have been impressive. Klink said, “For an organization that young, the ability to generate outcomes has been strong. We’ve been very satisfied with the pace of development and capacity to produce deliverables in a very short time span and with a comparatively small investment.”
Beyond the partnership’s initial three years, both organizations are simultaneously looking at community needs in the recession and determining their respective long-term objectives. United Way has shifted part of its resources to emergency funding; Project Access NOW is working to increase physician engagement.
What’s more than clear is that Project Access NOW and United Way have work cut out for them. Both organizations are working to strengthen services because the entire safety net healthcare system recently suffered a great financial blow. Luckily, Carolee Lee, United Way’s VP Marketing and Communications, said, “the Project Access system was in place before the recession hit, so it was able to accommodate demand. We didn’t have to start from scratch.”
Looking further ahead, Klink said, “Any federal or state healthcare reform will take time and cost money. Project Access provides immediate help to people in our neighborhoods with resources that already exist.” Still, Wiesenthal concluded, “Project Access NOW is just part of the solution to get people healthcare now. It was never considered to be an overarching solution to all of our healthcare problems.”
(June 2009)
