JLW Ushers in a New Era of Service

Katie Hatfield

The purpose of the Junior League of Washington (JLW) since its founding in 1912 has been to develop the potential of women through volunteerism and, in doing so, to make a difference within the community it served. Over the years, as the organization grew in membership and the needs of the community changed with the times, the focus of the League’s efforts evolved as well.

A BRIEF HISTORY To understand the League’s focus on literacy today, it’s important we first take a look back at the organization’s history.

Until the 1920s, as the fledgling JLW built membership, it focused efforts primarily on child welfare, but as the DC community faced the effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s, League members changed their fundraising efforts towards bettering the local economy and caring for the destitute. Following the arrival of World War II in the 1940s and a shift in the economy, League women focused on raising money for war bonds, making clothing for European refugees, and volunteering for the Red Cross, among many others. Post-war, the 1950s and 1960s saw continued volunteer efforts by the League in several areas, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that there was a shift in tone to focus on three areas of interest: community arts, environmental quality, and youth community relations.

In 1987, the League turned to its membership base with a comprehensive “needs assessment” to better assess the most pressing issues of the community. The results of the assessment were refined to address the two important topics of “Women in Crisis” and “Youth at Risk” and thus focus on the prevention, education, and treatment of substance abuse (specifically alcohol and narcotics).

The League evaluated the focus area once again in 1999 and pivoted to its current multi-faceted focus in order to address DC’s low literacy rates. Since then, literacy has been the lens through which JLW has made all programming decisions: how it evaluates projects in which to invest League resources, how relationships are formed with community partners, and what programs or policies JLW advocates for at the local and federal level.

“Literacy seemed to be the spot where everything converged,” said Maria Marks, former JLW president who served on the Board at the time literacy was chosen as the focus area. “We would still be able to work with children, we would still be able to meet a huge gap that was needed that was identified at that time.”

Historically, roughly every decade, the League shifted its focus to meet the changing needs of the community in order to remain relevant and provide the best-fitting solution to ever evolving issues. In fact, at the time literacy was chosen, it was only supposed to serve as the focus area for around five years before being reevaluated.

“We put a timeframe on it [...] and right before it ended, about a year out, we chose to renew it,” explained Marks.

“We were enjoying it and we did not see a need to change the focus area at that point, by extending a year out that would also grant the League time so that if there was a gap either in member needs and wants, or to the community needs and wants, more importantly, we had a year to figure [it] out.”

In essence, this is seemingly the first time in the League’s history that the focus area remained the same for over 20 years.

However, when you stop to consider all the social, political, and economic upheaval that we’ve seen over the course of the past year, exacerbated by COVID-19 in the Washington, DC area (let alone nationwide), it seems like the perfect opportunity for the League to once again evaluate what the most pressing needs of the community are and how we can best help meet those needs.

“When I found out that we had selected literacy, never intending to keep it forever, I wanted to know more about why didn’t we change or consider another focus? In conversations with past presidents and other leaders, many shared that it seemed too big a project to undertake, how to change course with such a big ship,” explained Jessica Taylor White, current JLW President.

White continued, “[And] so, over time, to meet the evolving needs of the community and diverse interest of our membership, we tried to expand our definition of literacy to include cultural literacy, financial literacy, and other topics so that we could do more in the community while still under the umbrella of literacy.”

ENTER THE FOCUS AREA TASK FORCE In spring 2020, the JLW Board of Directors approved the creation of the Focus Area Task Force in order to assess literacy as the current focus area. In addition to Lauren Niles Whalen, as the Task Force’s chair, the members of the Task Force include both current and former JLW leaders with a diverse range of volunteer experiences and perspectives.

While the majority of the work was to be completed within the 2020-2021 League

The five phases of the Focus Area Task Force’s incremental evaluation approach that took place through the 2020-2021 League year.

year, the goal of the Task Force was not simply to decide whether or not to change the focus area, but to provide a lasting framework that will help leaders far into the future.

“When thinking about the needs in our community, I knew that there were many issues that JLW could select as a focus area and be impactful. This work is more so about the process, getting to the right answer and what would be sustainable for us over time[...] It’s about making sure that we have a focus area that will be impactful, meaningful, and that we connect with, but it’s also about setting up future leaders to be nimble and able to guide JLW so that we’ll always be meaningful to the community. We want future JLW leaders to be able to think critically about our impact and be equipped to explore new directions when needed,” explained White of her vision for the Task Force.

As with any major potential policy change, before any decision can be made, the most important step in the process is the information gathering phase. How would the Task Force tackle this challenge so that both member interests and community needs were accurately reflected? How could the focus be modified without affecting the current relationships built over the past two decades, but rather enriching them? The short answer is through a multi-phased approach incorporating a mix of methods including a community needs assessment analysis, member survey data analysis, stakeholder interviews, a consensus panel activity, and as much feedback from members as possible.

“The most challenging aspect of this process has been bringing all JLW members along with us on this evaluation journey,” said Whalen, Focus Area Task Force Chair.

“It matters so much to me that everyone who wants to be included feels like they are and we lift and amplify all voices who wish to contribute to this conversation. To that end, we have dedicated so much time this year into member outreach, engagement, and education. [...] We have truly tried to cover all of our bases, and I really hope we were successful,” Whalen continued.

THE APPROACH During the first stage of the evaluation process, Information Gathering, the Task Force identified and reviewed 23 published community needs assessments which outlined nearly 150 distinct community needs. Through a process of elimination, the Task Force was able to whittle these needs down to six main categories, or in their words “domains,” and 20 subcategories. These top six domains were: Education & Literacy, Economic Security, Food Security, Health, Recreation & Well-being, and Safety.

The Task Force then identified and interviewed both key stakeholders working in each of the six domains as well as elected officials within the Washington, DC area. These interviews yielded critical information regarding the needs of our community members and organizations as well as how JLW is perceived within the community.

One of the biggest takeaways the Task Force got from its conversations with the stakeholders was that the complexity of community needs makes it difficult to disentangle and address each independently. Therefore, it is important to identify root causes versus symptoms of the issues. For example, multigenerational poverty and blocked access to opportunity can be considered a root cause of other issues like economic insecurity and safety, not just a symptom.

Unsurprisingly, according to nearly all of the stakeholders, the COVID-19 pandemic worsened underlying disparities, exacerbated community challenges, and increased the number of individuals in need of help. As for the organizations themselves, the Task Force uncovered that most saw challenges with funding and grants, receiving assistance with internal capacity building, and coordination of services for the populations they serve.

As for how the League could best benefit and be relevant to these organizations, the stakeholders expressed that one of the ways JLW could better serve the members of its community is by leveraging the internal expertise of its members.

“So many of the skills our members have and maybe don’t give a lot of thought to are things that our neighbors in the community may find valuable as they, like us, look for meaningful opportunities. These skills include using LinkedIn and other social networks for career development, interviewing skills, and grant proposal writing among others. So many of the organizations we

Over 200 League members attended the Fireside Chats which included panel discussions with key stakeholders from such organizations as Washington School for Girls, Horton’s Kids, and So Others Might Eat.

spoke with during our evaluation brought up the internal capacity of JLW members and ideas they had about mentorship or soft skills development,” expressed Whalen.

With over 2,000 members, each with their own connections, skills, and experience, there’s a lot of room to explore how each member’s expertise can better impact the community at large.

“I think we have the ability to be a convener. We work across so many different areas in the region both in our League service, but then in our outside of the League lives where we actually live and work and play. We are a group of women that is connected so deeply to the fabric of this place that we could very likely marshall an awful lot of resources (both human capital and hard capital) towards anything we want,” agreed White.

NARROWING THINGS DOWN In order to begin the task of narrowing down the list of six domains, the Task Force created a “consensus panel,” or a group of randomly selected League members representing important groups across member status, transfer status, years in the League, age, location, League experience, and race/ethnicity. This diverse group of 18 women completed multiple surveys and group discussions with the Task Force and an external facilitator in order to parse through and rank each domain using 30 different criteria. The results of this work concluded that the three areas that resonated the most with members were: Education and Literacy, Food Security, and Economic Security.

While the consensus panel was selected in order to encompass as wide of an array of League demographics as possible, the Task Force was adamant about engaging with as many member voices as it could. To do so, the Task Force held four League-wide listening sessions and monthly “Office Hours” to both present its findings as well as solicit feedback from members on what issue areas the League would be best positioned to tackle. Members in these sessions agreed with the findings of the consensus panel that Education and Literacy, Food Security, and Economic Security were worthwhile topics as a potential focus area, but also, like the community stakeholders, agreed with the overlapping and interconnected nature of these issues.

While these listening sessions and office hours provided input from JLW at large, the Task Force hosted a series of fireside chats in order to provide League members with the opportunity to hear from organizations working in Education and Literacy, Food Security, and Economic Security. The purpose of which was to find out what are the most pressing issues facing the organizations in our current climate, how they have been able to persevere, how they are working to meet their communities’ needs, what issues were brought about or exacerbated by the pandemic that could have long-term impact on their communities, and how might JLW best devote its efforts to make an impact.

WHAT HAVE WE FOUND? In order to make a final decision on a focus area, it is important to evaluate all of the data bearing in mind what issues are byproducts of larger root problems in the community. For example, early on the initial research showed Food Security as a topic that repeatedly arose. However, what all of the stakeholder interviews pointed out was that Food Security cannot be addressed without considering the underlying problem: Economic Security.

“It’s also the same problem with literacy if we settled on a single issue. Down the road are we going to want to make that single issue a bigger tent and our membership has made it clear that their interests are pretty diverse so settling on a single issue was the opposite of what the membership told us they wanted,” said White.

Furthermore, it’s important to consider where JLW can serve as a marketplace leader and provide the most value to the community. Using Food Security as an example once again, what could the League as an organization provide that’s different or more impactful than the Capital Area Food Bank, Martha’s Table, Miriam’s Kitchen, or other organizations who already operate within the space and maintain food pantries?

So, where does that leave us? It leaves us with a final proposed focus area that not only targets a root issue but encompasses other byproducts of said issue and is also a space in which the League can be a leader. Think of the focus area not as Economic Security, but rather, supporting pathways

to opportunity through improved access to education, professional and financial development, and capacity building

resources in our community.

“What it really boils down to is the belief in human capability and the belief that all people should have the essential tools to be successful. The belief in the possibility for all

to be meaningful and valuable members of society,” elaborated White.

Interestingly enough, to find a focus area that would allow the League to better serve out in the community, it took looking inward at our own mission. “Our mission is developing the potential of women through volunteer work and improving our community, but it’s developing our potential and that’s what this focus area says and does. Developing pathways to opportunity is developing the potential of others and investing in people so that they can be successful and have the things that they need,” White continued.

By supporting pathways to opportunity, it allows for both consistency in areas members care about and facilitates changes to meet community needs. First, members who love literacy can continue to work in that space as education is a pathway to opportunity. Second, JLW leadership will have the ability to be more adaptable. If a new issue bubbles up in the community in any given year, this wider focus area umbrella allows them to allocate resources or grant dollars where it matters. Third, and it’s important to be made clear, there are no relationships between organizations with which JLW works that are in any danger of being dissolved.

“We’re not going to walk away from these long-standing community partners and placements where we are doing wonderful work that is meaningful and that our members are finding value in year after year. This new focus area opens the door to bring new partners where we haven’t been able to work in the past because they haven’t fit into our narrow focus of literacy,” assured White.

In fact, given what was learned from the Task Force’s work this year, organizations that work with the League likely have significantly different, if not, expanded needs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This evaluation of community need equips us to be able to have conversations with our current and future partners from a place of being educated on community need and therefore, a more informed and fruitful relationship. MEANINGFUL AND MEASURABLE METRICS The goal with evaluating the focus area this year was not just a one time fix, but rather a framework for the future. With literacy and previous focus areas, while there is no question that the League’s work benefited the community, it was historically very difficult to measure just how much of an impact they had. For example, while we can quantify the number of books the League donates from a book drive, it is impossible to determine how much we’ve improved literacy. Why does this matter? Because today’s donors and supporters of nonprofits want to know hard data about an organization’s impact.

“Donors want to be deeply engaged with the organizations they’re supporting and they want to know that you’re going to be a good steward of their resources and that you’re doing something meaningful with them,” clarified White.

Therefore, according to White, one of the “unsung heroes’’ of this evaluation process is the Research & Evaluation Committee that worked hand in hand with the Focus Area Task Force to adapt and develop different tools that can help measure the impact of fundraisers, community placements, and signature projects. Including data scientists and consultants with expertise in measuring performance among their ranks, the Research & Evaluation Committee has been instrumental in putting together the criteria and necessary spreadsheets to make tracking the effectiveness of JLW’s work a reality.

One important area that JLW also plans to explore to create meaningful and measurable impact is through changing the way the organization thinks about its grant giving. A key component of the new focus area, supporting pathways to opportunity, is capacity building. In the grant world, capacity building grants differ from programmatic grants in that they allow the organization itself to have more flexibility in fund allocation. As opposed to specific programs or initiatives set forth by the funders, capacity building grants allow an organization to bring themselves to a more sustainable place. For example, an organization could use a capacity building grant to hire a fund development consultant to help them develop a new fundraising strategy. Quite simply, White likened it to the concept of teaching a person to fish as opposed to giving a person a fish.

Despite often being smaller sums than targeted grants, capacity building grants can have a big impact on organizations in the long-term. Yet, in a 2020 study conducted by The Center for Effective Philanthropy funded by the Ford Foundation, despite most foundation leaders’ attitudes towards capacity building or unrestricted grants being positive, many foundations do not offer this type of grant and those that do typically offer it to less than 25% of their grantees. Therefore, this is an area where JLW can truly serve as a leader and provide unique value to the community.

WHAT’S NEXT In the first week of March, the Task Force finalized its evaluation report (which has been made available to all members). The final recommendation was shared with the Board of Directors at its March 8, 2021 meeting. After receiving the Board’s approval, the Focus Area was placed on the annual ballot on which all members would vote.

As of presstime, it is 3039M’s pleasure to be among the first to announce that the new focus area supporting pathways to opportunity has received the necessary two thirds majority to move forward. There is no doubt that the results produced by the Focus Area Task Force were built from strong data, presented with the members’ interests in mind, inclusive of our current relationships, and befitting of JLW mission and values.

“This process wasn’t about the ‘it,’ what the new focus area would be, this process sought to set the League up to better serve the community in a way that’s meaningful to our community and members, as well as identifying and setting up the steps we need to take when we need to look inward when its time to move forward again,” concluded White.