A Consultant’s Endorsement Paves Path for a Job-Readiness Charity’s Growth

David Phillips, once a partner at the now-defunct accounting firm Arthur Andersen, founded the nonprofit group Cincinnati Works with his wife, Liane, in 1997, to help the region’s chronically jobless people and those in low-wage positions.

Now he looks ahead to the opening of three new affiliate programs — in Madison, Ind.; Pensacola, Fla.; and Schenectady, N.Y. — and is working on a fourth, in Indianapolis.

Though the list of cities may seem random, all have a connection with the management consultant Ruby K. Payne and her company, Aha! Process, says Mr. Phillips. Ms. Payne’s work focuses on helping charities and educators fight poverty; she has recommended the Cincinnati Works approach to the communities in which she works.

Such endorsements have created opportunities for the charity, says Mr. Phillips, whose board has realized that it could use that connection to expand systematically.

Zealot Required

In Cincinnati, the program offers support services to help people find and keep jobs, including training in specific skills and in appropriate office behavior. “In corporate terms, it would be a very sophisticated employee-assistance program for poor people that is very cost effective,” Mr. Phillips says. A 2006 article in the Harvard Business Review said the charity “has greatly reduced turnover for many companies — in some cases, by more than half.”

Any city that signs up to create its own version of the program needs to assign a zealot to this work, Mr. Phillips says, “somebody that not only knows how to do it but has a passion for the poor and wants to eliminate poverty in their community.”

Mike Saccocio, executive director of City Mission of Schenectady, a charity that serves homeless people, says his organization has signed a contract with Cincinnati Works.

Students at nearby Union Graduate College will research the business case for expansion to the Schenectady area, and City Mission hopes to create its new program sometime in 2010.

Jean Norman, president of the United Way of Escambia County, in Pensacola, says it should take about nine months to do the fund raising to start Bay Area Works, covering the bays of the central Gulf Coast. “We just have to build the team and collaboration to do the planning and go through the process that Dave has outlined,” says Ms. Norman.

Mr. Phillips is paying for his charity’s expansion planning himself and will provide its partners in other cities with guidance on how to run an effective program, he says. But cities that wish to start new affiliates need to support them financially, he adds. They need three years’ operating money before they open the doors: Starting from scratch would cost between $1.2-million and $1.5-million for the three years, he estimates. Costs drop significantly, he says, if an existing organization takes up the project.