In April 2023, United Way of Mass Bay launched a new organizational strategy focused on advancing an economically just region – one where access to financial opportunity is universal, and prosperity is shared across race and ethnicity. United Way anchored its focus on four avenues to financial well-being: 

• Economic Inclusion and Wealth Building, 
• Early Education and Out-of-School Time, 
• Education and Career Pathways for Youth and Young Adults, and 
• Safe and Stable Housing

From October 2023 to January 2024 (Phase 1), United Way of Mass Bay partnered with Root Cause to convene 100+ grantee organizations working in the four areas above to form a network and then develop a methodology and process for collecting and sharing data related to systems-level and population-level outcomes. The focus of Phase 1 was to build trust and establish effective collaboration between all of the participating grantees/nonprofit partners. 

In Phase 2, from February to September 2024, grantee cohorts were established in the four focus areas of Economic Inclusion and Wealth Building, Early Education and Out-of-School Time, Education and Career Pathways for Youth and Young Adults, and Safe and Stable Housing. Each cohort came together to co-create systems-change goals for the next 3, 5, and 7 years and discuss desired outcomes.

Root Cause then synthesized goals and outcomes from all four cohorts and circulated them amongst the network to obtain feedback. Using the feedback collected above, and in partnership with United Way, Root Cause drafted final goals and shared outcomes and proposed metrics/targets to use to track progress for the network/collective action initiative. At the end of the summer, Root Cause and United Way facilitate a network convening to share and confirm final 3, 5, and 7 year systems-change goals, outcomes, metrics/targets, and the proposed methodology for grantee involvement in collecting and sharing data. 

In the fall and winter of 2024, Root Cause helped United Way to develop a protocol (including budget, timeframe, and scope) for evaluating this initiative and developed a final project report.

• 100+ nonprofit organizations working in Economic Inclusion and Wealth Building, Early Education and Out-of-School Time, Education and Career Pathways for Youth and Young Adults, and Safe and Stable Housing in Eastern Massachusetts came together to form a network to advance a more economically just region. 
• Each group identified 3, 5, and 7-year systems-change goals, outcomes, and metrics/targets for their collective work and co-developed a methodology for collecting and sharing data.
• Root Cause also helped United Way to develop a protocol for evaluating this initiative and developed a final project report.