Public Value of Service

1. Public Value of Service IACC VISTA Webinar April 2014 Monique Ellefson

2. Steps to Public Value • Understand the difference between public and private value. • Create the case and urgency for public value of your organization/work. • Embrace public value in addition to private value. • List and prioritize organization public values. • Develop public value stories from your projects/organization/work. • Describe and share your organization/work in relation to public value.

3. Public vs. Private Value • Public Value • The value of an opportunity or program to those who do not directly benefit from it. • Private Value • Personal value derived directly from an opportunity or program.

4. Private Value • Focus on what you want to do • Specific to what you are doing • Meet specific needs of community and your organization • Work can be seen as outdated/irrelevant • Potential unrealized • Public good value of organization diminished • Lose funding more easily PROs CONs

5. The Push for Public Value • K-12 standards based movement • Measuring Excellence databases • Program planning and reporting • Evidence-based movement • Return on investment movement • The political context- government relations • Need more than feeling good about our organization

6. Common Public Values • Decrease health care costs • Decrease public costs related to financial problems • Decrease public response costs to emergencies and disasters • Increase academic success for a highly qualified and productive workforce • Decrease public costs related to dependency on local, state, and federal services • Increase quality jobs • Decrease the cost of consumer goods • Improve environmental quality • Increase global competitiveness • Increase civic engagement of citizens • Increase health and ability of public safety workers

7. Your Organization’s Public Value • Map and prioritize programs (core vs. emerging) • Determine impact to measure (condition change = public value) • Collect and analyze data • Tell the public value story (tie to research and evidence) • Where does your org fit?

8. Making Your Case • Avoid generalization • “Contribution towards” vs. “causation of condition change” • Pay attention to what the current events are in your community or in the area of work that you do. • Provide a balance of qualitative and quantitative evidence. • Clearly share any limitations of the data. • Methodological diversity provides strong data (case studies, observation, focus groups/interviews, secondary data, surveys)

9. Impact Statement • Factors • Focused on public value • Catchy • Short • Jargon free • Describe the issue or problem statement in simple terms appropriate for your audience. • Why are we doing this program? • What needs were expressed? • What was the situation/problem, and why was it a problem?

10. Powerful Impact Statement [Name of organization] believes [deeply held value]. Every day, we [verb] [object] for [constituents] because [problem statement]. • Starts from a place of emotion & conviction in order to make a real connection with your audience. • Immediately grounds that emotion in the concrete work an organization does to help real people. • Explains how your work addresses a problem that exists in the community.

11. Examples from Other VISTAs • Harmony Health Clinic believes that everyone should have access to quality health care, despite their ability to pay. Every day we meet the health and wellness needs of these patients at no cost, because healthy people build healthy communities. VISTA Member 2011 • Prescott Area Women’s Shelter believes that housing is a human right. That’s why we ensure that our constituents have a roof over their head. Because nobody should have to call the streets their home. VISTA Member 2011 • EarthDance believes in growing food and growing farmers organically and sustainably. Every day we strive to educate and inspire our community about the importance of sustainable food systems because we believe healthy food equates healthy citizens.VISTA Member 2012

12. Public Value Story Template • Success Story • Issue being addressed - include public value reference in title • Relevance • Why is it important to address this issue with education? • Include research, statistics, and trends to support importance of issue. • What are the desired changes? • Response • Outputs - Identify activities, # of clients reached, publications, services, workshops, etc. used to address the issue • Results • Outcomes: Identify specific behavior and condition changes, how outcomes were measured, and relevance to public value

13. Public Value & Your Position • What is your organization’s public value statement? • Can be used for: • Recruitment • Funding/grants • Assessing programs/services

14. Public Value & You • Use this information for yourself! • Translate your year of VISTA into your values, beliefs, aspirations, etc. • Helpful for… • Career planning/searching • Reflecting on year of service • Resume building • Preparing for interview questions

15. Questions? Comments?

16. References • What’s the Value Proposition of Your Organization: Determining and Articulating Your Public Value. Nancy Franz, Iowa State University. Iowa Nonprofit Summit, Nov 2013. • Powerful Presentations. Jean Carroccio. VISTA Leader Webinar, Feb 2014.