Why It’s Time to Pivot

In 2021 I had a conversation with the policy director of a super senior lawmaker in Washington, DC. At the time the House was trying to move through a multi-trillion dollar package for infrastructure, poverty alleviation, and energy. For the past 20 years I’ve been working on a data tool and with communities to understand the root cause of issues then work through applying the most efficient path to achieving individual, community, corporate, and jurisdictional goals. My interest in speaking with the policymaker was to let them know that their goals could be achieved for a fraction of the multiple trillions they were proposing and it was entirely possible to move people out of poverty, achieve many of the sustainability goals, and just start creating healthier households and communities for half of what they were asking. The response from the policy director is that I missed the actual intent of the bill.

In 2022 a regional leadership council in Florida commissioned a report that explained that if households were given access to the opportunities and resources they needed to thrive then it would increase regional revenue by 20%, which for this particular region equated to about $5 billion in the largest county alone. The report wasn’t bad and I mostly agreed with the results, with one exception. The way my organization captures data and analyzes it, I believe that $5 billion is a severe underestimate. Imagine an additional $5 billion without raising taxes or without selling off state-owned land to fund the government budget. $5 billion becomes available if people are given the resources they need to thrive and when community assets are activated to support its residents. After reading the report I reached out to the then-CEO of the leadership organization and indicated that the report was interesting and the work my organization does could facilitate achieving the desired household and community outcomes. I asked the then-CEO what their plan was for moving forward. His response: to work with the large corporations that are members of their invitation-only organization to include a DEI statement in their board documents. (insert eye roll here)

Also in 2022 I was working with a medium sized nonprofit and I was tasked with developing their annual report. The organization had been given a significant amount of COVID/ARPA funds to distribute so I thought this would be a great opportunity to demonstrate the power of our data tool to illustrate how funding can correctly connect to the places and people that need it the most and would yield the highest return. By the time I got involved most of the funding had been distributed so I simply looked at the effects of the already distributed funds. The pattern was that most of the funds went to specific zip codes, within a specific demographic. As I was involved with this project one of my dearest friends was unemployed and about to lose her house. I suggested that she reach out to the organization I was doing the work for because they received emergency funding. Unfortunately my friend didn’t qualify for the emergency funding because she wasn’t of the correct demographic and she didn’t live in the right zip code. 

The current system is failing. We are failing at every. Single. Level. 

When nonprofits apply for grants - so before funds are received or services are delivered - in most cases the applicant is asked UP FRONT who they will serve. Most applications ask for a breakdown by geography, race, ethnicity, veteran status, and/or disability. My question is: Why can’t I just serve the people who need it most? Let me be clear, I am very aware and acknowledge that there are a disproportionate number of communities of color that are under-resourced and unable to achieve the same outcomes as affluent, predominantly white communities. In many cases the remedy “to help under-resourced communities” has been gentrification, which applies a very narrow typology of what a “good” community is and usually makes the situation for the households originally there much worse. This is a problem. Pivot believes that there is a better way to bridge the gap between those who have and those who are struggling to keep it together (if it hasn’t already fallen apart). Pivot’s strategies and data tools guide resources and interventions where people need it. All people. After the resources have been provided then we examine who’s been helped but first we serve all people. In using the Pivot strategy to serve the need, you actually exceed the number of people receiving needed services if you were to disaggregate by demographic groups versus identifying up front the number of specific people that look a specific way who will be helped.

I revisit the 2022 regional leadership report frequently because the point they made is a significant one. I applaud the leadership group for using their power and platform to begin the conversation that it is economically beneficial to give people access to opportunity - I’ve been saying this since 2018 (but no one invited me to the table…). But their report fell short. What their modeling neglected to identify - but what my organization has always known - is that not only would the jurisdictions financially benefit but the individual corporations in the region would actually achieve greater revenues as well - and it’s not achieved through a DEI statement. Crazy thought, but everyone wins. 

I hope that you don’t take away from this post that I am upset, bitter, or harbor any negative feelings about the projects I’ve worked on or the conversations I’ve had. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. It’s time to shift how we address the needs of our society, satisfy corporate and government goals, and how we engage with one another. Everyone can win. It’s time to Pivot.