“There is a crisis emerging in America….The future workers shortage, lack of worker skills, increasing wage gaps, disjointed public programs, and limited business participation and attention all contribute to the crisis. But most importantly, it is the failure of our nation to recognize and respond to these challenges that presents the greatest risk.”
From “Keeping America in Business:
Advancing Workers, Businesses, and Economic Growth” (2003)
The National Fund for Workforce Solutions is a $50 million effort to strengthen and expand high-impact workforce development initiatives around the country. It is addressing with effectiveness and efficiency a critically important problem in America today: The crisis in workforce preparedness. While workforce skills are increasingly important in a globally competitive market, more than a third of the American workforce lacks the skills needed to succeed in this environment.
Vision, Mission, and Strategy
Workforce partnerships—new entities linking businesses and employees—have been shown to be an effective strategy for remedying this crisis. In regions and states across the country, workforce partnerships have organized key stakeholders, mobilizing service providers and securing local resources to help workers to gain the skills they need and employers to access the skilled labor they need.
The National Fund for Workforce Solutions is creating a pool of $50 million or more to grow and accelerate investments in local workforce partnerships. The Fund’s investments will support local initiatives by providing financial support, technical assistance, evaluation, research, and other capacity-building services.
A key goal of the Fund is to leverage local and regional support for promising workforce partnerships. In the pilot phase of the fund, investments by national foundations in six sites generated more than $50 million in private and public investments from local sources.
Based on the achievements of the pilot sites, the National Fund for Workforce Solutions aims to:
- Leverage over $200 million in local funding, creating measurable outcomes for individuals, businesses, and workforce development systems;
- Enable sites to place 50,000 or more individuals into jobs and/or advance in their careers;
- Provide support services to 1,000 or more businesses to assist them to better recruit, retain, and advance employees into family-supporting jobs; and
- Help expand resources and improve the efficiency of workforce development systems in more than 30 regions across the United States, leading to better outcomes at lower costs—and to funding that is more sustainable.
The current investors—the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Hitachi Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Labor—have committed over $20 million to the National Fund over the next five years. They are seeking additional national investments of at least $30 million.
The Fund provides a way for foundations to engage with other field leaders to address issues not only of workforce development but also of poverty, youth development, family stability, snf community development, as well economic competitiveness. The Fund’s goals include focusing on the special needs of lower-skilled, lower-wage workers and job seekers and increasing their economic mobility, strengthening families and neighborhoods in the process.
National Fund for Workforce Solutions Partners
Two organizations—Jobs for the Future and the Council on Foundations—play crucial roles in implementing the Fund’s strategy.
Jobs for the Future will be the Implementation Partner. Its responsibilities include the following:
- Provide fiscal management: JFF manages the pooled grant funds for the Fund. It provides grants management and administration, including the oversight of grant distributions, grant compliance and internal control issues. It monitors grants and provides ongoing grant reporting.
- Manage the site selection process: JFF works with the funders to design a site selection process. It solicits applications, screens initial submissions, and develops recommendations for Investor Committee review. Once the Investor Committee has selected the sites, JFF will negotiate details of site participation in the Fund program.
- Coordinate site support and peer learning and manage external consultant contracts: JFF will coordinate technical assistance for all sites. This should include diagnosing key issues and providing dedicated, tailored support, with a primary focus on capacity improvement. Technical assistance to the sites will be provided through expert consultation, peer learning meetings, and e-learning.
- Manage research and evaluation: JFF works with the funders and external consultants to develop reporting requirements, both for ongoing performance management and evaluation. It will identify, with external consultants and sites, public policy and advocacy opportunities.
The Council on Foundations is the Leadership Partner for the National Fund for Workforce Solutions. Its responsibilities include the following:
- Provide national attention to the urgent need for foundations to support effective preparation of America’s workforce through the Fund: COF will create new opportunities for foundation leaders to discuss the role of philanthropy in workforce investment at Council-sponsored meetings and events. It will schedule workforce planning sessions, roundtables, “investor discussions,” and plenary sessions. It also will help foundations access lessons and best practices; develop suggestions for program requirements and evaluations; and consider public policy impacts and system-reform issues.
- Help establish a working Corporate Grantmakers Advisory Board: COF works with the investors to define the board’s mission and recruit members to support the Advisory Board’s activities. It will provide strategic insights on programs and ideas to the National Fund for Workforce Solutions Investor Committee and offer suggestions on program requirements, program evaluations, public policy impacts, system reform issues, and communications.
- Provide input and advice to the Investor Committee: Participate in meetings to offer expert advice and counsel.
- Provide support for the fundraising activities: Assist in identifying new investors.
Other national partners include Workforce Learning Strategies, the NFWS evaluator; the National Council on Education and the Economy, which is leading the policy advocacy work of the initiative; and the United Way of America, which is supporting a cohort of its local affiliates to form regional funding collaboratives. The National Fund for Workforce Solutions supports regional collaboratives in ten locations across the country: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, and Washington, DC.
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