Business Champion Toolkit
This Business Champion Toolkit was created by United Way of America to help state and local United Ways deploy business leaders already committed to early learning as public champions for early childhood education. It’s part of United Way's ongoing business leader engagement work, which helps state and local United Ways identify, educate, persuade and mobilize private sector volunteers around education, income and health. The Business Champion Toolkit includes the following tools:
Introduction to the Toolkit.
Tips for organizing Business Speakers’ Bureau activities.
Outreach letter to United Way leaders encouraging them to take part in the Speakers’ Bureau.
Editorial column by a business leader for newspaper, newsletters, magazines or web sites.
Letter to the editor by a business leader for newspapers, blog postings, listservs or email blasts.
Online tracking tool (created in Survey Monkey) to measure progress and outcomes statewide.
Audience feedback form for speakers to fill and return to United Way as part of tracking process.
Video (5 minutes) depicting a real-life success story demonstrating the value of early learning as an investment in human capital. The video can be viewed online but community viewing is best with DVD. Please contact Mariana Florit for information on how to obtain the video on disc at mariana.florit@uwa.unitedway.org. Please note that this is a rough cut of the video and we will upload the final version as soon as possible!
Remarks (6-8 minutes, depending on personalization) synthesizing the most compelling arguments for business leaders, which can be adapted for local issues or call to action.
PowerPoint (for trainer or for speaker) with the latest research, graphics and proven messaging, annotated with remarks in Notes section, all sources cited and drop-in data for each state.
Leave-behind (1 page) summarizing basic arguments for early learning, from business perspective, and a generic call to action to support early learning. You can adapt call to action, and add state-specific data (about problem data or solutionsunderway) on the back, along with contact information for anyone wanting details or to get involved.
Frequently Asked Questions (internal)– Designed to give the speaker additional information on the issue & answers to possible questions beforehand (not designed to be given to audience).
The Business Champion Toolkit was developed with the support of the Birth to Five Policy Alliance (www.birthtofivepolicy.org), whose goal is to shift the odds for very young children and to close the achievement gap. The Alliance is a pooled fund supporting state-level policy through research and policy analysis; outreach and support for state policymakers; and building champions among key stakeholders.
