Steps in the Process

• Strategic Planning. We recommend at this stage, that you work through the planning section if you haven't already. Strategic planning will allow you to emphasizes the identification of family and community outcomes early in the process so your work is focused on changing community conditions. Define the goals of your UWSF initiative and then revisit and refine those goals based on the following steps for modifying your allocation process.

• Your strategic planning process, which includes the identification of community needs, should be used to inform your allocation process.
• Identify your allocation team. In the strategic planning section you assembled a team of people to do UWSF work; including UW staff, community partners, residents, and program participants. Depending on who comprised that team, at this point in the allocation process you might reconvene them or create a different group of people to help modify your allocation process. Engaging all appropriate parties early on will ensure there is increased understanding and support when the new RFPs are introduced (think path of least resistance).
• Provide orientation. Offer your team members an orientation to UWSF.
• Having a team that understands the Strengthening Families framework makes it possible to establish suitable criteria for funding.
• Determine your rationale. Clearly state your reasons for including UWSF principles in your allocation process and include the possible benefits to families, your community, and your local United Way.
• Give great care and thought to this step, remember you are asking your partners to buy in to the principles of UWSF.
• Specify the community needs, assets, and priorities. Identify your community needs relative to the protective factors as you determined during your strategic planning and revise your RFP to address those issues.
• Keeping all the protective factors at the core of your RFP is extremely important. UWSF must be multifaceted to produce real impact, and that means encouraging partners to embrace all of the protective factors.
• Define desired community outcomes and indicators. Conduct meetings with various RFP-funded partners to develop uniform outcomes and appropriate evaluation indicators. In step five you outlined community issues to address, and here you are defining what results you would like your grantees to achieve and how you plan to measure those results.
• All reviewers need to be on the same page regarding your new criteria and how to evaluate proposals. Consider a team meeting to go over the language. During this meeting you might evaluate a couple of existing proposals according to the new criteria, followed by a group discussion as to what "counts" as what.
• Review, refine, and write your RFP. The following components are listed in the order they should appear in your RFP document.
• The order you choose to work on each section should be based on what is logical to you.
• The order you choose to work on each section should be based on what is logical to you.

Keys to Success

1. Overview of the RFP. Creating a clear and accessible outline of the allocation process for your applicants increases their understanding of both what you are looking for and how the five protective factors can work for them as well as the community..

• Purpose. A clear statement of the purpose of your UWSF initiative as you identified it in step 5.
• Funding Priorities. A statement of your selection criteria as it meets the community priorities you identified in step 6.
• Expected Outcomes. Cleary define all grantee responsibilities and evaluation requirements as well as proposed program oversight and monitoring.
  • Make sure that grantees understand what their reporting responsibilities will be throughout the funding period. Keep these proportionate to the amount of funds you are providing.
• Description of training and support to be provided. Offer your community partners training and assistance in the implementation of UWSF, include your expertise, technical assistance, or networking.
  • Offering funded partners more than money serves to establish fidelity to the protective factors by helping to soften the transition—they are not alone.
• Deadlines and contact information.

2. RFP Packet Checklist. This will include a list of all materials you are requiring applicants to submit in their packet (for a sample checklist click here).
3. Application Instructions

• Consider requiring specific curricula and assessment tools for your grantees to use (see San Antonio's Required Criteria section).

Keys to Success

1. Project narrative. Make sure to include any page limits or items you expect your applicants to cover in their narrative (ie. Mission statement, history, licenses, etc.)
2. Support Letters. Define the content you need to receive in letters of support from parents and community members (sample letters from Anchorage).
3. Budget narrative.
4. Budget justification.
5. Proposed activities. What work will the applicant be completing and how does it support the protective factors in strengthening families and work toward preventing child neglect and abuse.

• It is important to keep in mind flexibility in an applicant's approach to the protective factors. Try to encourage the inclusion of as many of the factors as possible.

6. Target population. A comprehensive description of the population to be reached. This should include projected numbers to be served as well as demographics.
7. Expected outcomes. This section should address the measurable goals of the applicants program as they relate to the principles of UWSF.