The Women's Fund Miami-Dade

Who are the people you serve with your mission?

The Women’s Fund Miami Dade's mission is to build a Miami-Dade where women and girls can rise to leadership, achieve equal opportunity, can access equitable health care, and are free from violence. We are doing so through grantmaking, advocacy, research, and leveraging collective impact.

How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?

Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys, Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Community meetings/Town halls, Constituent (client or resident, etc.) advisory committees, Polls during our monthly Impact Collaborative Events. ,

How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,

What significant change resulted from feedback?

In '21-'22, we resumed grantmaking after a 5-year hiatus. The WFMD is guaranteeing while fundraising $200k and establishing a diversely talented Grantmaking Committee to design, develop and implement grantmaking strategy, process and plan to deploy these funds aligned with our mission and goals. The inaugural grantmaking cycle started midway through the pandemic, which revealed the many economic, health and family security, and safety burdens that disproportionately fall on women. After deep-dive research, the recommendation was that the best use of the funds available was to direct them to community-based efforts that offer and contribute to lasting solutions to the financial sustainability problems of the childcare system in Miami-Dade as a strategy to advance women’s economic mobility.

With whom is the organization sharing feedback?

The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders, Our community partners,

How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?

The crises in childcare rooted in labor issues rose to the fore in Grant Committee discussions as a broken system with a direct impact on women, and especially, women of color who both represented the bulk of the childcare workforce and center ownership as well as the “primary consumer” in search of quality and affordable childcare for their children. We are responding with urgency to problems exacerbated by the pandemic, which has revealed many systemic issues that disproportionately affect women and their economic security and well-being. Among these is an inadequately supported childcare and early education system (Childcare System) that remains unaffordable to many. Both the women who work in the childcare sector and the women who rely on it so they can go to work themselves.

Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback,

What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time,