CUMU Conference 2019

As poverty and inequality continue to plague American cities, universities and hospitals are looking for ways to leverage their role as community anchors to address these issues. Local procurement programs have emerged as one way for institutions to build local wealth and create jobs. In order to increase the impact of individual institutions, many cities are creating place-based collaboratives to amplify the impact of individual anchors. However, because collaboratives focus on systems-level change, which can take many years to achieve, they frequently struggle to raise and sustain necessary levels of funding.

The presenter will share best practices gleaned from launching Philadelphia’s anchor collaborative, Philadelphia Anchors for Growth and Equity (PAGE), run by the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia. She will discuss how the Lean Startup methodology, an approach that focuses on gradual growth using validated learning, helped PAGE make the jump from a policy paper to an operating initiative. The presenter will discuss the report that sparked city-wide interest in creating an anchor collaborative, how early wins helped launch PAGE and how to leave room for experimentation in a way that delivers results, while allowing the collaborative to evolve. The goal of the presentation is to share a strategic planning framework that could be useful in creating financially sustainable and effective local purchasing collaboratives.

The presentation is based on a March 2019 article in the Metropolitan Universities Journal titled Philadelphia Anchors for Growth and Equity: Applying the Lean Startup Methodology to Build a Financially Sustainable Anchor Collaborative.