Administration Expenses: Expenses including rent, insurance, office supplies, fax/phone, internet, accounting and legal fees, postage/courier etc...

Coalition: An alliance of agencies/organizations for a common action or purpose

Collective Impact: An approach that should not be confused with the broader term of community impact or other forms of collaboration and partnership. Organizations have attempted to solve social problems through collaboration for decades without producing many results. The vast majority of these efforts lack the elements of success that enable collective impact initiatives to achieve a sustained alignment of efforts. 

There are five distinct conditions needed in a true Collective Impact model.  These conditions must be in place to be considered a Collective Impact model: 

• Common Agenda - a shared vision for change including a common understanding of what the problem is and a joint approach to solving it through agreed upon actions.
• Shared Measurement - Collecting data and measuring results consistently across all activities ensures efforts remain aligned and the partners hold each other accountable. 
• Mutually Reinforcing Activities – Strategies and activities must be differentiated while still being coordinated through a mutually reinforcing plan of action. There is no space for duplication. 
• Continuous Communication - Consistent and open communication is needed across the many players including agencies and funders to build trust, assure mutual objectives, and create common motivation.
• Backbone Organization Support – Creating and managing collective impact requires separate organization(s) with resources and specific skill sets to serve as the backbone for the entire initiative and play a key coordination role with organizations, agencies and funders.  

Community Impact: Investments to influence community change (programs that benefit broader community, convening, research and speaking out). 

Common Indicators: Indicators that all programs under a strategic priority are asked to report on if their work aligns to the result being measured.

Convening and Engagement: Convening and engagement are dynamic processes which engage a collaborative network of stakeholders who work together on behalf of their community to address an issue with the goal of creating and realizing community learning and change. 

Direct Impact: Investments in frontline programs and services that benefit individuals.

Evaluation Expenses: Expenses required to conduct program evaluations, baseline and endline surveys, mid-term evaluations, operational research etc… Excluding transport and staff time which is counted elsewhere. 

Evidence based research/support: Evidence based research or support can take the form of published research or data, past program/project results, surveys, focus group results etc. that validates the relationship between the program activities, strategic priority(s), and intended results.

Financial Solvency: Financial solvency, in an organizational context, is the ability of the organization to fulfill its financial commitments. 

Focus Areas: Focus areas provide the overall framework within which United Way East Ontario will apply its efforts and investments in the community.Within each focus area are specific strategic priorities that further define how United Way will make resourcing decisions and engage the community. There are three focus areas:

• All That Kids Can Be: To help kids in East Ontario grow up to be their very best we invest in initiatives that will prepare them for kindergarten, give them a safe place to go after school to play, learn and just be a kid, and programs that get homeless youth off the streets for good.
• Health People, Strong Communities: United Way ensures that all members of our community get the help they need, when they need it.
• From Poverty to Possibility: We invest in programs and initiatives that help immigrants find jobs that match their skills and give people with disabilities employment opportunities and a sense of belonging to their community.

Funding Categories: There are four categories of investment opportunity for each of the strategic priorities.Combined, they represent a holistic approach to realizing the strategic priorities.  They include:

1. Programs and services
2. Convening and engagement
3. Policy and advocacy
4. Research

Funding for Results: Funding for results refers to a funding strategy where there is a very deliberate relationship between the funding provided to a service provider and the results achieved; i.e. funds are “paid” to a service delivery partner for agreed upon results in a specified timeframe. These results can be expressed as either outputs or outcomes, for example the number of clients served, the number of clients that progressed from “x” state to “y” state, a specific piece of primary research, a policy change etc.  

Indicator: An indicator provides evidence that certain results have or have not been achieved. Indicators should meet the following criteria: 

• Direct: Measure as closely as possible the relevant result. 
• Objective: Be precise and unambiguous about what is being measured and how. There should be no doubt on how to measure or interpret the indicator. 
• Adequate: Should sufficiently capture all of the result. 
• Practical: quality data needed to inform the indicator are available in the given time-frame.

In-Kind Contributions: In-kind contributions are goods or services that your organization would otherwise need to purchase that are provided, free of charge, by other organizations/individuals. The value of in-kind contributions should be based on what you would have paid for the goods and services, if you had to purchase them.  In-kind contributions help demonstrate the true costs associated with running the program/project.

Examples of in-kind contributions include, but are not limited to:

• Volunteer hours (# of hours worked x $15 per hour)
• Donated professional services (such as legal advice, auditing of financial statements)
• Overhead (such as utilities) related to the program/project 
• Donated equipment, materials, office supplies
• Rent-free use of facilities, office space or equipment
• Donated publication, printing and promotional materials

Miscellaneous Expenses: Expenses that don’t fit in any other expense category. Such expenses must be explained in detail in the budget description and comments.

Outcome Indicators: Measure the broader results achieved through provision of services, in this case at the program/or project level. Outcomes quantify the actual effect the agency's efforts have on its objectives.  For agencies who deal with clients, outcomes could be changes in (or maintenance of) skills, knowledge, attitudes, behaviour or circumstance. For agencies who work at a system level, outcomes could be changes in (or the maintenance of) system level states, conditions, policies, etc. In other words, Outcomes measure if anyone is better off, or in the case of system level programs, whether or not the key desired goal has occurred.

Output Indicators: Measure the quantity and quality of services provided (e.g. clients served, hours of service, activities that took place, sessions held, pamphlets produced, etc.). In other words, Outputs measure how much you did and how well you did it.

Policy and Advocacy: Policy and advocacy activities are designed to increase the community’s understanding of the importance of an issue and/or the need to address policies and strategies to change, reduce or remove barriers. Advocacy can include a wide range of activities that an organization undertakes including media campaigns, public speaking, educational seminars, lobbying for policy changes etc.

Program Costs Expenses: Program-related expenses such as materials, resources and promotion.  This excludes transport.

Programs and Services: Program and services cover activities designed to provide vulnerable clients with supports including but not limited tobasic day to day living essentials, training, education, skills development, mentorship, engagement in community through social, recreational and employment opportunities, social enterprise initiatives, and individual capacity building.

Research: Research refers to activities that create and mobilize knowledge for action by communities, civil society, policy makers, and stakeholders in all of the key areas affecting the current and future social, economic, and environmental sustainability of Canada. 

Salaries and Benefits Expenses: Expenses related to the staff employed/working on the program/project. They include items such as salaries/benefits for all employees (full time or part time) and contract staff.  

Social Services Sector: Organizations/agencies whose mission is to provide meaningful opportunities to improve the lives of the disadvantaged population groups such as children, disabled persons, seniors, and vulnerable persons in the community by providing services such as educational support, day programs, counselling, housing support, skills development etc. 

Target Population: A specified group of people who are the focus of any work toward achieving the strategic priority.  Within each strategic priority definition a group of people with specific identifiers (e.g. age, socio-economic status, risk factors, vulnerability, issues, and barriers) are described.  

Target Result: A target result is a measurable performance or success level that a program or initiative plans to achieve within a specified time period.  Both outcome and output indicators require specific targets which could be numbers, percentages, complete/not complete, yes/no etc. …

Travel and Transportation Expenses: All staff, contractor and volunteer travel as well as client transportation costs.  Includes programmatic transportation costs as well as administrative travel costs.