going from strategy to impact - starwood's journey (slides)

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“At Starwood, we have big goals in terms of moving the needle on social change. We set out to do things differently and needed

a partner who could team with us to create a system that would help us build impact

and accomplish our goals. We found that when we partnered with Versaic and The

Rensselaerville Institute.”

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Kristin Meyer, Associate Director, Community Partnerships Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

At Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Global Citizenship is a cornerstone of the business.

The Starwood Foundation needed to track,

quantify and evaluate their social impact – and a system to manage the complexity.

Here’s how they partnered with The

Rensselaerville Institute and Versaic to go from concept to implementation, to impact.

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How did the Starwood Foundation transform their

giving programs?

They started with a strategy, identifying five Social Responsibility focus areas: 1.  Workplace Readiness 2.  Human Rights 3.  Conservation 4.  Disaster Relief 5.  Community Vitality

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Starwood engaged with Results Consultants at The Rensselaerville Institute (TRI) to

bring their strategy to life.

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TRI helped Starwood make a mindset shift from a “funder” to an “investor.”

By creating a strategic results framework first, Starwood was able to link everything in their

giving programs back to results.

“Impact is the end goal, while results that an organization is looking to achieve are the

measurable changes in behavior or condition. Results let organizations know that they're

getting closer to the impact.”

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Wendy Watson-Hallowell, Executive Director, Results Consulting The Rensselaerville Institute

Starwood’s impact framework means that results are always integrated:

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“The Starwood team understands that their grantees’ results ARE the Foundation’s

results. It’s that mindset that drives how Starwood partners with their grantees to achieve those results together… [and]

improve results over time.”

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Wendy Watson-Hallowell, Executive Director, Results Consulting The Rensselaerville Institute

“We needed a system that had results built in through the entire process, could evolve with us, and a

team that was willing to partner with us to build that out. Versaic really offered the ability to do everything.”

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Kristin Meyer, Associate Director, Community Partnerships Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

The Plan in Action Starwood partnered with Versaic to implement a grants management system that brought their vision to life.

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-  Flexible, custom-configured system allows Starwood to do exactly what they need and streamline a complex process.

-  Versaic Client Success team brings deep experience, collaborating with and supporting the Starwood team.

-  System automatically follows up with grantees to capture impact data which can be reported on at any time.

-  Starwood can continually evolve their program and improve their impact with the Versaic system.

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Starwood’s Program Management System

Read the full eBook, Going from Strategy to Impact.

For more information,

please call 650-212-7424 or visit:

The Starwood Foundation

Versaic

The Rensselaerville Institute

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