Change doesn’t come without innovation and creativity – two attributes United Way has embraced throughout the years as we work to expand economic opportunity in our communities. This commitment is reflected in the initiatives we’ve launched and supported over our nine decades of service.
For example, as we worked towards the goal of safe and stable housing for everyone, we helped reshape the state’s approach from a shelter-based model to the innovative Housing First model while helping to implement new ways of funding supportive housing. In 2015, United Way worked with the Commonwealth, Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance and the Corporation for Supportive Housing to launch a first-in-the-nation Pay for Success initiative, a new approach leveraging private capital and philanthropy to scale a proven Housing First-based intervention.
Plans for this initiative began in 2011 when the Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance under the Patrick administration started exploring the new concept of social innovation financing, which links funding with measurable results rather than just services performed. United Way and MHSA were selected in 2012 to negotiate with the state to serve as the intermediary for the first Pay for Success contract, with formal negotiations beginning in 2013.
As Pay for Success plans were taking shape, United Way also supported Boston K1DS, a 2014 pilot program that brought Boston’s successful prekindergarten curriculum to community-based programs. The pilot tested whether the model (combined with an increase in compensation for the lead teachers involved, who were earning less than half of the average salary of a Boston Public Schools teacher) could be applied with similar results. The program was a success, with students who attended a Boston K1DS program demonstrating more readiness for school than their peers who did not attend. The lesson: investing in children works. And this work served as a model for what’s known as the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative today, serving Gateway cities across the state.
In 2020 United Way partnered with Chelsea City Manager Tom Ambrosino and the Shah Family Foundation to launch a guaranteed income pilot called "Chelsea Eats.” This was the largest guaranteed income program of its kind in the nation, and lessons from its implementation have informed similar basic income programs since. It also shows how our crisis response work can deepen our understanding of community needs and new ways to address them.
“Chelsea Eats underscores the role of philanthropy to catalyze and seed new approaches,” said Bob Giannino, United Way’s then-President and CEO. “Now, we can build on the results to shape the conversation about how guaranteed income pilots can be effective solutions to increase financial wellbeing for vulnerable households in our region.”
The impact of these bold initiatives launched by United Way of Massachusetts Bay has reached communities across Massachusetts and the country, along with policy makers, philanthropists, and direct service providers. Programs like Chelsea Eats or Pay for Success have been used as case studies by academic institutions and practitioners and adapted in communities nationwide.
United Way will continue to pursue bold and practical innovations to tackle the challenges we face today. As Joe Finn and Jeff Hayward, leaders at the time from MHSA and United Way respectively wrote about Pay for Success, “progress would be impossible without some level of risk.”
