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1/ Wave of Change: Shaping our Future for Increased Collective Impact

2/ As a member of a global organization, I know you joined this

organization to be part of something beyond your local

community. And that something is the collective effort of all our

clubs to improve the lives of women and girls, globally, in the 19

countries and territories we serve.

3/ We call that Increased Collective Impact— or, the direction

we’re moving in as an organization.

Why do we need to move in this direction and what does

collective impact mean?

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4/ There are two concerns Soroptimists have to keep our legacy

alive:

1) Declining membership

2) Soroptimist being the best kept secret.

5/ If Soroptimists are to successfully solve these concerns, we

need to attract more people to carry out our mission and spread

the word about the measurable and sustainable difference we

make in the lives of women and girls.

6/ Many club members believe their work makes a difference.

And it does. But our work tends to be about how another

organization was able to carry out their mission because of our

club’s generosity.

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7/ It’s time to change our approach. It’s time to engage more

people to carry out our mission, so we collectively demonstrate

the difference we make.

8/ Collective impact can have many meanings but at SIA:

It means our programs are focused and demonstrate we work

together, not as individual clubs, or regions, but as one

federation.

It means together we build our recognition through federation

programs demonstrating measurable and sustainable

improvements.

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It means together, we generate more resources to increase the

reach of federation programs.

It means together, we increase the number of people involved

with our mission.

It means together, we stop funding the work of other

organizations and invest in our own SIA programs, that have

defined outcomes and measure the social change we are

collectively making.

9/ In club year 2013-2014 we are shaping our future in four ways:

through Clarity, Program, Resources and a Healthy Backbone.

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10/The first way clarity, is helping clubs and members understand

our vision, mission and core values have been fine-tuned to better

focus the direction of the organization.

11/ We are a global organization focused on women’s human

rights. Our vision is a world where women will have access to the

resources and opportunities they need to reach their full potential

and live their dreams.

Our mission is still about improving the lives of women and girls

but your board has added clarity about how we do that—through

programs leading to social and economic empowerment.

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12/ Your SIA board has further clarified what we value as an

organization. We are committed to: gender equality, the

empowerment of women and girls, education of women and girls,

and diversity and fellowship.

13/ These simple clarifications of who SIA is, what we do and

what we care about, will shape our organization and what it is

recognized for…through our programs … creating greater

recognition … leading to greater resources and achieving our

vision.

The result is an increase in our collective impact, before the cycle

starts again.

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14/ Greater clarity will lead to greater recognition. Why do we

care about our recognition? Because the power of a good

reputation enhances an organization’s influence to attract

members, corporate sponsors, professional staff, and public

support. Our reputation causes others to join with us to

accomplish our mission. We don’t want to be the best-kept secret

any longer.

15/ The second way we are to shape our future this coming year is

through program, specifically our Women’s Opportunity Awards

program.

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16/ Based on agreement within the women’s development

community, your SIA board has decided the most effective way

SIA can advance the social and economic status of women and

girls is for clubs and the federation to focus on programs

providing access to education. Clubs can support this focus by

participating in the federation’s Women’s Opportunity Awards

program. For clubs already participating, we want to encourage

you to give additional awards and expand support for the

recipients.

17/ We also want clubs to support local projects that help women

and girls gain access to education. This will support SIA’s efforts

to Increase Its Collective Impact while also supporting SI’s theme

of Educate to Lead.

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18/ The empowering nature of the Women’s Opportunity Awards

is unique because the program gives recipients discretion to use

their cash grants in any way that best supports their educational

goals.

19/ And by often choosing careers in the helping professions, our

recipients multiply the cycle of improvement and growth for

others.

20/ All of these benefits happen with an annual investment of just

$1.6M in women and their education. Just imagine what could be

accomplished when that figure is doubled or tripled.

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21/ The third way to navigate the wave of change is the need for

greater resources to Increase our Collective Impact.

While giving locally is our heritage, giving together—globally—

must be our future.

22/ We must encourage our clubs to make SIA their cause of

choice by giving at least 10% of what they raise locally to the

federation to grow the number of women and girls who benefit

from federation programs.

Some of you may be thinking: “I pay dues, and I support all those

fundraisers. And I also pay Founders Pennies. Surely that should

be enough.”

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23/ It’s NOT enough. Why? Because dues pay for operating the

structure of our membership organization. They do not pay for

the funds disbursed through our wonderful Soroptimist programs.

24/ Our programs are fully funded by contributions. Those

contributions come back to individual clubs in the form of award

money and program support. But they also support awards

throughout and at every level of our federation.

25/ You should know of the almost $1.6 million raised from our

very generous members, clubs and friends, 81% goes right to our

programs.

The other 19% covers the costs for SIA to raise the funds. We can

be proud that our cost to raise funds is consistently lower than for

similar organizations SIA’s audit firm compares us to.

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26/ Perhaps the most important point is that NO contributions

pay for administration, governance or member services expenses.

Contributions fund our programs, and dues cover member

services, governance and administration.

27/ You see, as a global organization, we cannot fail to help

women and girls beyond our own communities if we are to

demonstrate the power of being united in making a measurable

and sustained difference under the SIA federation.

28/ Finally, we will be focusing on a healthy backbone with strong

clubs, growing supporters and a sound infrastructure.

29/ As you know, in early 2012, several barriers to membership

were determined. Coupled with research on volunteer and

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association trends, it was concluded these barriers have created a

system that unintentionally divides members and hinders

membership recruitment and retention.

30/ At the August 2012 SI board meeting, SI agreed to remove all

the club membership requirements from the SI Constitution.

Now, club and member requirements are the domain of each

federation. SIA has the much-welcomed opportunity to break

down barriers and determine the proper membership criteria that

will work best for our federation.

31/ While simultaneously working to strengthen our club model,

we are also offering new engagement opportunities through our

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online business model, LiveYourDream.org, which was specifically

designed to strengthen the backbone of our organization.

32/ We have had a lot of early success with this new model. More

than 15,000 Live Your Dream supporters have joined our cause,

80% of whom are not SIA members.

In 8 months, about 2,500 actions were taken to end violence

against women and we’ve raised more than $15,000 through

donations and sales of Live Your Dream items. And Live Your

Dream received a Google Grant, which provides $10,000 per

month in ad words. Our marketing firm is very hopeful about the

power of our growing community to attract corporate sponsors.

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33/ We should all be proud of our leadership, past and present,

for their vision and courage in moving forward not only with Live

Your Dream but with investing in a sound infrastructure for

Soroptimists today and tomorrow!

34/ Now is the time to catch the wave of change and help each

other row together in the same direction toward increased

collective impact. 28 regions and 1,345 clubs rowing together will

travel further and faster while creating a lasting legacy for

Soroptimist. That’s the power of this wave of change carrying us

toward Increased Collective Impact.