WiNGS, New Friends New Life, and Metrocrest Services recently completed an 18-month national demonstration project on building strategic partnerships and revealed their findings to foundation, nonprofit, and community leaders from across Dallas at an Aug. 9 forum.

Funded by JPMorgan Chase and implemented by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), the project focused on partnerships that integrate financial capability services among partner organizations. The participating nonprofits leveraged their choice of three prototype models – DIY (Do-It-Yourself), Partnership, or Referral – to integrate financial capacity offerings into their existing services.

“Financial well-being is often at the root of the challenges community organizations are working to address. We look forward to building on these findings to create effective partnerships that help families reach their goals,” said Jennifer M. Ware, WiNGS CEO. “Today’s Community Form is a call to action to look at new ways in which we work strategically to maximize both financial resources and client success.”

“By thinking deeply about our programs as real people experience them, we can design solutions that work for the people who need them most,” explained CFED President Andrea Levere. “WiNGS’ participation in the Community Financial Empowerment Learning Partnership is the perfect case in point. With strong partners at the table, their financial capability integration efforts reached nearly 4,000 people across the Dallas community. 

According to research by CFED, nearly 52 percent of households in Dallas lack sufficient liquid assets to subsist at the poverty level for three months should they suddenly lose their income.

“Regarding poverty, we are at a crisis in Dallas. We have to work together and deal with this systematically,” stated Regina Montoya, chair of the Mayor’s Task Force on Poverty.  

Additionally, the demonstration project proved strategic partnerships among organizations can boost programmatic outcomes and maximize community and philanthropic resources that are focused on poverty. Top outcomes discovered include reduced duplication, enhanced financial capability service offerings, and a greater likelihood of success for clients.

“We were pleased to be part of this collaboration with WiNGS and Metrocrest. It is critical to share our learnings from this project with other community and nonprofit leaders who are making a real difference for the people they serve,” New Friends New Life CEO Katie Pedigo said. “New Friends New Life works to empower survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, and we know how crippling financial insecurity can be for families. It’s imperative that we continue to leverage outcomes from this project to ensure organizations like ours are maximizing resources to drive meaningful change.”

For more information about the project, visit http://www.newfriendsnewlife.org/blog/2016/8/9/nonprofit-partnership-address-poverty